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Book:\^/ (^ tA ?■ 



THE LIFE 



HENRY WILSON, 



Republican Candidate for Vice-President, 



1872. 



By J. B. MANN. 



ILLUSTRATED. 




BOSTON : 
JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY, 

(late TICKNOR & FIELDS, AND FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO.,) 

124 Tremont Street. 
1872. 



1872 ^e^v 2oou in fi^c0 1872 



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THE LIFE 



HENRY WILSON, 



9 tS'-^ 

Republican Candidate for Vice-President, z::. 



1872. 



By J. B. MANN. 




BOSTON : 
JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY, 

(late TICKNOR & FIELDS, AND FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO.,) 

124 Tremoxt Street. 
1872. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S72, 
By JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO., 

In the Office of tlie Librarian of Congress at Washlaston. 



is ^ : 

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Kitnti, A very, «^» Co., Sterto'.ypert anii Printers, Boslon. 



PREFACE. 



THE remarkable career of Henry Wilson would justify a much 
more elaborate and serious work than would answer the purpose 
of a political campaign ; and such a work, it is understood, has been 
undertaken. Although Mr. Wilson is more generally known than 
almost any public man of the time, and known to have been a long 
and consistent advocate of certain liberal radical ideas, that, in prac- 
tical politics, commenced working in this country since he came 
upon the stage, and which have won their way to a success so 
grand that they are not to-day found liberal enough for the men 
who have uniformly opposed them, yet the best informed minds 
are little aware of the full nature and extent of his labors and 
influence on behalf of these ideas, or of his interest in, knowledge 
of, and powerful advocacy of, many other and highly important 
matters of legislation and public concern. 

He has been so long in public life, and been such an intense, 
continuous worker, and so prominent in those causes that have most 
excited the people, that men have lost sight of labors and acts of 
his sufiBcient to have made the reputations of scores of public men 
who might have performed them as a specialty. Notwithstanding his 
long, able, and consistent career in advocacy of measures and prin- 
ciples no one dares now to dispute, notwithstanding his large-hearted 
sympathy with the poor, the oppressed, and the ignorant, and not- 
withstanding a life of devotion to their interests, there are those 
who pretend to regard his nomination to the office of Vice-Presi- 
dent of this republic as anomalous, — the result of a lucky or unlucky 



Vi PREFACE. 

accident, — and who -would raise doubts of its fitness. With a view 
to i)laee within the reach of such the materials for forming a sounder 
judgment of the man, we have been tempted to give in a plain way 
the story of his life as it is. 

It is not claimed that he is faultless ; but his mistakes and errors 
have never been seriously injurious to the State, to mankind, or to 
any of the causes in w^hich he has been prominently engaged. He 
has been emphatically a man of the people ; and, as such, we 
invite for him an inspection of the record. 

On the occasion of his silver wedding, Oct. 27, 1865, one of 
the editors of " The Springfield Republican," (liberal !) who knew 
him long and well, was constrained to utter the truth in fashion 
thus : — 

" A silver wedding claims a silvery verse ; 
And Wilson well deserves a poet's lay : 
But I in humbler measure must rehearse 
How fairly earned the honors of this day. 
For friendship here puts on more public guise : 
The man we love has been the people's friend : 
Not wedded faith more sacred in his eyes 
Than Truth to champion, and the poor defend." 

Natick, Mass., Aug. 1, 1872. 




KKSIDENCE (IK IIKNKV WILSON, NATICK, MASS. 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



CHAPTER I. 

Birthplace. — Condition of the People. — Apprenticeship. — Early Aspirations and Struggles. — 

Freedom. 



H 



ENRY WILSON" was born 
on the sixteenth day of 
February, 1812, in the town of 
Farmington, N.H., — a small town 
located in a deep valley through 
which runs the Cocheco River, a 
small but rapid stream, that, lower 
down at Rochester and Dover, af- 
fords extensive power for manu- 
facturing-purposes, and from the 
latter place is navigable to the 
ocean for small vessels. In 1812, 
sixty years ago, Farmington was a 
new country. It had been a pre- 
cinct of Rochester, and was in- 
corporated into a town only four- 
teen years before the birth of 
Wilson. 

It is a rough, rocky, broken 
country ; and even now, a few 
miles out of the principal village, 
is still new comparatively ; many 
of the houses being only the first 
remove from the log-cabin of the 
wilderness, — little low building.s 
with two rooms and four windows, 
an outer door at one corner, and 
rough shingling, unpainted, indi- 
1 



eating moderate resources and the 
absence of most of the luxuries 
of modern civilization. In 1812, 
when it was all new and a wilder- 
ness, when the village proper was 
composed of a dozen houses, and 
the nearest approach to a town 
was Rochester, eight miles dis- 
tant, and every thing raised on 
the land must be hauled to Dover, 
eighteen miles away, to find a 
market, the times were neces.sarily 
hard, money was scarce, and privi- 
leges were few. The people were 
poor, worked hard, lived on little ; 
and only a few of the most in- 
dustrious, economical, and lucky 
could expect to amass a fortune 
large enough to save their children 
from a life of similar deprivation 
and drudgery. 

Winthi'op Colbath, the father of 
Wilson, was among the poorest of 
the poor men of this then unde- 
veloped and poor country. His 
father and grandfather had been 
poor men : and brought up as ha 
was, with the family ideas all 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



associated witli extreme poverty 
as their only lot ; shut out from 
the Avorhl of enterprise ; ignorant 
of what tiie worhl was doing, and 
how it lived ; deprived of opportu- 
nity to change his condition l)y the 
circumstance that the day's wages 
nuist be used for the day's suste- 
nance, and the former never able 
to quite keep its heels from being 
trodden on by the latter under the 
best conditions, — there was appar- 
ently no incentive and no chance 
to rise in the world ; and to such 
as he the case was hopeless. He 
grew up with no thought of much 
better things than had fallen to 
the lot of his progenitors. They 
had seen want all their days ; their 
best efforts for two generations had 
failed to conquer the difficulties of 
the situation ; the most favored 
people around them were gaining 
but slowly with all their advan- 
tages : and the choice lay simply 
between starving to death and al- 
most starving to death ; and that 
was all there was to it. 

This extreme poverty of the 
family had its usual effect. It 
killed hope utterly in the mind of 
AVinthrop. His every footstep was 
dogged by necessity. He expect- 
ed no improvement, and adapted 
himself to his manifest destin}', 
trusting to obtain from content- 
ment that happiness which never 
could reach him by any probable 
buj)j)ly for the wants of civilized 
man. 'J'his dcjgree of jjoverty 
has ])roljably led to the invention 
of a current story in relation to 



the origin of the family, which 
appears to be without foundation. 
The onl}' approach to a definite 
statement concerning this story, 
which the writer could get at, was 
this : Mr. Smith Colbath, a second- 
cousin to Winthrop Colbath, met 
a distinguished lawyer of tlie State 
a few years since who knew all 
about it ; and his story was, that 
the original Colbath came to this 
country with an only child, a 
daughter, in the service of Gov. 
Wentworth, and remained on the 
place to take care of it when the 
governor was driven away by 
the people. 

But this story cannot be true. 
It is entitled to no consideration 
whatever. Wilson's ancestors, on 
his father's side, were Scotch- 
Irish. The}^ came to America 
from the north of Ireland early 
in the eighteenth century, and 
settled at Newington, near Ports- 
mouth, N. H. Wilson's great- 
grandfather, James Colbath, grand- 
son of the first settler, did busi- 
ness in Portsmouth from 1750 to 
1783, when he removed to Mid- 
dleton, in Strafford County, where 
he died, in the year 1800, at an 
advanced age. He left eight chil- 
dren, — five sons and three daugh- 
ters. Winthrop, one of his sons, 
the grandfather of Wilson, settled 
in Farmington, where he died at 
a very old age. 

The maiden name of Henr3''s 
mother was Witham, also of a i)Oor 
family, and with general surround- 
ings similar to the faniilv she nun- 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



ried into : so that, on both his 
father's and mother's side, there 
was not much for the poor boy to 
look back to but the history of 
hardship, want, and their usual at- 
tendants and concomitants. Their 
reputation, however, is simply that 
of poverty and obscurity, and not 
of crime; and they struggled to 
hold their own, but under pecu- 
liar and aggravating disadvantages. 
They were people of strong natu- 
ral powers of mind : and the whole 
treatment of Wilson by his mother 
■ shows a degree of appreciation of 
his ability remarkably just, and a 
consistent, persistent effort to have 
him rise in the world ; which, under 
the circumstances, proves her to 
have been a woman of great sense 
and discretion, and governed by 
a worthy and generous ambition. 
Those who knew her well say that 
Wilson inherits his moral and men- 
tal characteristics from his mother ; 
while in stature, and physical form 
and feature, he bears a striking 
resemblance to his father. 

The birthplace of Wilson was 
on the Rochester road, one mile 
below the village ; but all traces 
of the habitation were long ago 
obliterated. Across the road at 
the foot of the knoll on which the 
house stood is an old well, over 
which is the well-remembered curb 
and sweep ; but the " oaken buck- 
et " has yielded its position to a 
modern tin pail. Four handsome 
elms adorn the highway on the 
same side with the well. Soon 
after the birth of Henry, his father 



moved to a small house one mile 
lower down towards Rochester. 
This house Avas standing twenty- 
five years ago ; but the depression 
left by the excavation for the cel- 
lar, and the slight embankment 
around it, one or two domestic 
trees, and a little extra luxuriance 
of the grass, are all tliat is left to 
denote that it was ever the site 
of anybody's house. In the rear, 
at a few rods' distance, is a meadow 
watered by the overflow of the 
river : there is a forest in front ; 
and far to the north-west, through 
the upper opening of the valley, 
Mt. Belknap is a prominent ob- 
ject against the clear blue sky. 
It was nearly all forest about the 
house in Wilson's boyhood. Hen- 
ry was the eldest of a family of 
eight boys, who followed each 
other into the world as rapidly as 
the course of nature consents, in- 
creasing the cares and burdens of 
the struggling couple, and adding 
to the chances of starvation, which 
were sufficiently threatening be- 
fore the advent of each new-comer 
and competitor. At ten years of 
age, Henry found an opening for 
usefulness and hope by being 
bound to service with jVIi-. Knight, 
a farmer near by, from whom anoth- 
er boy had run away for more con- 
genial employment ; and thus and 
ever afterwards he became self- 
supporting. 

Just prior to this happened one 
of those little turning events which 
seem to control and shape the char- 
acter and career of the individual. 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



While he and another hid about 
the same size were engaged in a 
boyish scuffle in the sand-bank by 
the roadside, Mrs. Eastman, wife 
of tlie village lawyer, came riding 
b)% and stopped to reprimand the 
lads for their foolishness. She 
asked if they could read ; and the 
eager manner of Henr}', as he re- 
plied, im])ressed her very strongl}' 
that the boy she was reprimanding 
was above the common ; and at once 
she promised to give him a book if 
he would go to her house and get 
it. He promptly went, obtained 
the book, and at the same time the 
privilege of going to Squire East- 
man's, and reading his whole libra- 
ry of books and newspapers. This 
book was a copy of the New Testa- 
ment. Mrs. Eastman was a sister 
of Le\'i Woodbury, governor of 
New Hampshire, Van Buren's sec- 
retary of the treasury, and justice 
of the United - States Supreme 
Court ; and she possessed her full 
share of the talent of a remarkably 
talented family. 

Her first impressions of Henry 
were confirmed, and more, by a fur- 
ther acquaintance. She interested 
her husband in the youth ; and both 
kept watch of him, encouraged his 
visits to their house, advised him 
about books, and loaned them to 
liim ; and in all suitable ways stim- 
ulateil his love of knowledge, and 
gave it proper direction. The son 
of Hon. N. Eastman, George N., 
who succeeded to the profession 
and business of his father, remem- 
bers how Henr}', when a boy. 



would come to the office and discuss 
politics and literature, history, &c., 
with his father, in a way that only 
one or two men did ; and his father 
and mother were alwaj's predicting 
a distinguished career for him. 

Mr. Knight was a farmer who 
had got a start in life, and was doing 
well ; but thrift in farming at that 
day implied early rising, immediate 
attention to the first thing in hand, 
adherence to the order of business 
through the. day, strict watch of all 
the loose ends, and a careful econ- 
omy of time and money. This was 
the fashion ; and the importance of 
it was recognized by him, and never 
lost sight of. There was work 
always. When it stormed, there 
were tools to repair, harness to tog- 
gle up, corn to shell, threshing to 
be done, and various other things 
to keep the hands from loafing or 
fishing ; and, when the day was 
over, boys and men were usually 
tired, and most of them glad to go 
to bed. It was not the practice of 
working farmers to light up even- 
ings to read and talk ; but the 
blazing logs in the open fire-place 
gave light enough for so much rec- 
reation of this kind as the wearied 
limbs would permit. But Henry 
had an excellent constitution ; 
could endure more work than most 
boys ; and, when the family retired, 
he would remain behind in the 
chimney-corner, and read till the 
last flickering ember gave up the 
ghost, and no longer could be 
j)unched into a spasm of combus- 
tion for his benefit. 



LIFE OF HENEY WILSON. 



By the indentures that bound 
him to the service of Mr. Knight, 
he was to enjoy the privilege of 
attending school one month in each 
year. Think of it, ye gods ! A 
young man crazy for knowledge, 
absolutely crazy, and limited to one 
month of school per year, and such 
a school ! Will that boy ever be 
a senator of the United States ? 
Perhaps. He went the first day of 
the term ; and the teacher marked 
for him a lesson in Mun-ay's 
" Abridgment of English Gram- 
mar," — a lesson which, at the rate 
of three per week, would have 
taken him through the book in 
about a year. But Mr. Knight 
construed the contract so as to 
permit the schooling to be taken 
when there was least work, snow- 
storms, and weather too cold for 
out-door operations ; and hence the 
next day of his appearance at 
school was three weeks from the 
first. Now, many boys would have 
forgotten their lesson in that time, 
had they learned it, especially as 
it was a lesson in Murray, which no 
boy of ten probably ever under- 
stood. But not so Henry. Called 
up to recite, he kept on past the 
mark, and on, and on, until the 
thing began to grow tiresome to 
the teacher, and he had to inquire 
rather nervously where it was all 
to end. His astonishment may be 
imagined when he was informed by 
the- lad that the whole book was 
committed, and he could repeat it 
word for word from beginning to 
end. For a boy who worked dur- 



ing all the hours of daylight, and 
was a stranger to the invention of 
candles, this is about as good a feat 
of that kind as is recorded in his- 
tory, we imagine. And so he went 
on for eleven years, receiving 
twenty-six days of instruction in 
each year, scattered along at un- 
equal intervals, of the quality of 
instruction afforded by the period. 
But his devotion to books and work 
gave no time for sprees and larks : 
so the world is deprived of even 
a single hatchet-story to enliven 
these pages. Going to school in 
that way, he could hardly be said 
to have schoolmates ; and all of 
them whom we questioned could 
think of nothing peculiar about 
him save his devotion to books, 
and an inveterate disposition to 
take the part of the " under dog 
in the fight." No small boy could 
be walloped by a big boy, when 
Henry was about, without his tak- 
ing a hand to restore the equilib- 
rium. 

He had a great longing for news- 
papers : but as this was before the 
days of reading-rooms and insti- 
tutes, and the mail came to Farm- 
ington but once a week, and only 
a few families took the papers, of 
which Mr. Knight's was not one, 
he was obliged to gratify his de- 
sires in this direction by getting 
his mother to borrow the weekly 
" Dover Gazette " of a neighbor 
after it was a week old, and the 
new one had come to relieve it 
from duty ; and he would run- 
home and read it at night, so as tO' 



LIFE OF HENRY "WILSON. 



ha»ve it returned immediately to 
the subscriber. And so he toiled 
for knowledjj^c, and imbibed it and 
demofracy actually on the run. 
Mv. Eastman had sonu' volumes 
of newspapL-rs carefully filed away 
in i»L'ri"L't't order, — '' Niles's Regis- 
ter," and some later Washing- 
ton pajjcr, — which he devoured; 
and there were Plutarcirs Lives in 
his librar}', a memoir of Napoleon, 
and a biograjjliy of one Henry 
Wilsun, whose character made 
such an impression upon the youth, 
that he resolved to be called by 
the same name, — a resolve that he 
carried out on attaining his ma- 
jority. 

AVhen about fifteen years of age 
there appeared in " The Dover 
Gazette " a sharp criticism of 
Marshall 's " Life of Wasliington," 
which was denounced as a bad 
book for having convinced some 
one that the Democratic jiarty 
was in tlie wrong. " The Gazette " 
was Democratic. Here was a 
new idea, — the Democratic party 
in the wrong ! Impossible. But 
then such a book should be seen. 
There must be curious things in it, 
— preposterous probably, and lies 
maylje, but )^et worth looking at. 
But liow to get it was the question. 
There was no copy in Farmington ; 
and the first penny of the many 
d(jllars required to buy it had never 
yet found its way into the pocket 
or hand of tliis toiling and truth- 
seeking boy. Alter niiich inijuiry, 
he heiiid that some marvel of for- 
tune in Rochester villatre was the 



owner of this wonderful book : and 
Rochester was seven miles away ; 
could only be reached by him on 
foot, and after the day's work was 
done. He must go for it and re- 
turn, making fourteen miles, and 
then restore it and return, mak- 
ing twenty-eight miles on foot 
and in the night. True, he could 
send by some one for it; but the 
messenger might not half perform 
the errand, and he Avould not be 
sure of it: or it might be stolen 
from his wagon going or returning ; 
and such precious freight as a book 
must not be trusted to chance trav- 
ellers or careless clod -hoppers who 
had no idea of the value of books. 
So there was nothing to do but go 
for it ; and he went. This was the 
way knowledge was disseminated, 
forty-five years ago, among boys 
born poor and in the country. Is 
a boy who earned it in that man- 
ner to be laughed down or sneered 
down by 3'oung gentlemen in kids, 
swinging their flexible rattans, and 
assuming all the graces of learn- 
ing because of their knowledge of 
popular drinks and fashionable 
neck-ties? AVe think not. But 
Henry stored knowledge away for 
use ; and at the age of twenty he 
could give the place of every battle 
in the Revolution and the war of 
1812, the date, the numbers en- 
gaged, the killi'd, wounded, and 
prisoners on t-aeh side : so you 
could not ask him a question relat- 
ing to these facts that he could 
not at any timi; answer. 

With all his cravinu' for knowl- 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON". 



edge, Henry could buy no books. 
The exigencies of the family pre- 
vented his father from giving him 
any spending-money ; and as Mr. 
Knight made it a principle to 
spend none, and his contract did 
not require him to furnish any to 
the boy, he got none. Once, when 
there was a holiday, a farmer 
offered him a cent to dig out a 
stump that was in the way ; and he 
took the job with alacrity, it was so 
exhilarating to be doing business 
on his own account. The contract 
proved heavier than he thought it 
would be, and the whole day was 
consumed in removing the stump ; 
but he put it through neverthe- 
less, and at the close of the day 
received his pay promptly in cash 
as stipulated, — the first money 
he could call his own. It was 
small pay ; but what matter to a 
boy that was to become a senator ? 
He might go to the Capitol round by 
that stump as well as by any other. 
It was a beginning, at least ; and 
the cent earned as that was could 
not be foolishly squandered. He 
learned in that day more of pa- 
tience and self-denial by far than 
he would had the pay been ten 
dollars in lieu of ten mills ; and 
the lesson was more valuable 
than the dollars ten thousand- 
fold. 

And thus he lived and worked 
and studied until his twenty-first 
birthday came and set him free. 
He now engaged work on the farm 
of Mr. Wingate for some months 
at nine dollars per month ; and, 



when that time was up, he sought 
employment at Great Falls, Dover, 
Newmarket, and vicinity, at very 
small pay, willing to work for nine 
dollars per month, but unable to 
obtain even that small pittance ; 
and he a stout, robust, healthy, 
full-grown man, in the prime of 
his powers, and afraid of nothing. 
His compensation for the eleven 
years' services with Mr. Knight 
was one yoke of oxen, value un- 
known, six sheep, and such knowl- 
edge of farming as Mr. Knight 
possessed, which, however valu- 
able, proved insufficient to justify 
him in writing a book of instruc- 
tion on the subject for the benefit 
of mankind. His services with 
Mr. Wingate yielded some forty- 
five dollars : so that at twenty-one 
years and a half he was fairly 
started with an available capital 
in cash value of less than a hun- 
dred and fifty dollars. But he had 
read more than seven hundred 
books, and more newspapers than 
any man in town at that date. He 
had a remarkable memory, espe- 
cially for facts and dates ; and, in 
reading, made a point not only to 
fix the principal incidents in his 
mind, but the precise time of their 
occurrence. This practice im- 
proved his memory; and afterwards 
the great stores of facts treasured 
away in his head, with no very 
definite purpose other than to 
possess knowledge, not knowing 
exactly when or where it might be 
used, became immensely valua- 
ble to him, and have made him a 



8 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



competitor in debate, that shallow 
and pretentious men have not been 
swift to encounter in the United- 



States Senate or elsewhere. So his 
worldly capital was not to be de- 
spised, after all. 



CHAPTER II. 



Starling out in Life. — A Tramp to Natick. - 
iitionism and Labor Ilefurm. — Working. - 
Ketiun to Natick. 

SOMEWHERE about the year 
1832, rumors reached tlie slow 
and unprogressive region of Farm- 
ington, that in Massachusetts there 
were chances to obtain work at 
almost fabulous wages ; and a few 
young men in and near Farming- 
ton had struck out for this golden 
land of promise to test the truth 
of the encouraging reports. Some 
of these had gone from Ncav Dur- 
ham to Natick, Mass., there learned 
the trade of shoeraaking, and early 
in 1833 had returned and estab- 
lished the business at home. One 
day, young Wilson walked over to 
New Durham for the purpose of 
forming an engagement to partici- 
pate in the advantages of this 
flourishing trade. The managers 
were very polite, and spoke highly 
of the prospects of the business, at 
tiic same time offering to impart a 
full knowledge of the craft to the 
adventurer for two years' service 
as an apprentice. To a young man 
who had ahead}' served an ap- 
prenticeshii) of eleven years of the 
most exacting toil, and wlio had 
just enjoyed the luxury of wages 
for a ffW mouths, the prop(jsition 



- Apprenticeship. — Debating Society. — Abo- 

- Seeking an Education, &c. — Misfortune. — 

was appalling ; and he turned his 
back upon the establishment at 
New Durham, disappointed, if not 
discouraged. On his way back, 
the thought came to him that he 
might do for himself what these 
Durham folks had done for them- 
selves ; and he at once resolved to 
take up the line of march for Na- 
tick, and trust to fortune and his 
own exertions. On the second day 
of December he packed his scanty 
wardrobe in a bundle, tied it up 
with a cotton handkerchief as was 
the custom, cut a straight hickory 
stick by the roadside, and started 
on foot for the promised land, just 
a hundred miles by the nearest 
way, every step of which was 
taken without once turning back 
or faltering. He passed down 
through Dover, Salisbury, New- 
buryport, Lynn field, and Charles- 
town, to Boston. At Lynnfield he 
called at the house of a Quaker 
and asked for a night's lodging. 
Before retiring he proposed pay- 
ment in advance, which the good 
" Friend " was not disposed to ac- 
ce[)t in advance, as implying a dis- 
. trust of the honor of his guest ; and 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON". 



9 



Wilson was obliged to explain, 
which he did hy saying he wished 
to be on his way before the family 
would be up on the morrow, and 
would not like to disturb them to 
settle in the morning. A few 
years after this he met in the 
legislature of Massachusetts, as 
a fellow-member, a son of this 
Quaker, who remembered the cir- 
cumstance, because of the pertina- 
city with which the young pilgrim 
insisted upon advance payment of 
his trifling bill. When he ap- 
proached Charlestown, the sight of 
Bunker Hill aroused his patriot- 
ism ; and though very tired, and so 
foot-sore he could scarcely move, 
he went a mile out of the way for 
the sake of standing on the battle- 
ground of the Revolution, and 
seeing the spot where the destiny 
of the world was changed, as he 
had read in history. Passing 
through Boston under the shadow 
of the State House, little dreaming 
that under its dome he would ever 
be an actor in any capacity, he 
threaded his way out to the Neck, 
and in Roxbury began to inquire 
the road to Natick. Tiie person 
of whom he inquired was not per- 
fect in his geography, and pointed 
to the Dedham turnpike as the 
direct road ; and so for ten miles 
he tramped on in the wrong direc- 
tion. At Dedham his mistake was 
corrected ; and he pushed on for 
Natick, but lost his wa}^ and went 
by the Upper Falls, Grantville, 
and West Needham, arriving at 
the premises now owned and occu- 



pied by Hon. H. F. Durant, the 
distinguished lawyer and pliilun- 
thropist, but then occupied by a 
shoemaker, whose hands were at 
work by candle-light, it being nine 
o'clock in the evening, and very 
dark. Wilson went into the shop, 
told the men how he had come 
from Dedham, was on his way to 
Natick, and wished to go to that 
part of the town where he could 
find M. Luther Hayes, an old 
Farmington playmate. One of the 
men knew Mr. Hayes, and informed 
him that it was five miles to his 
shop, and he still on the wrong 
road. This man, Mr. Sabin Felch, 
procured a lantern, and struck off 
across fields and woods to the 
other road, a mile distant, guiding 
the wanderer to the true way: and 
about midnight he reached Penni- 
man's Tavern, on the Worcester 
turnpike ; and, too tired and lame 
to go on, he went in and staid the 
remainder of the night. These 
details of the journey are given to 
show the obstacles which, at a date 
so recent, the young men at that 
time had to encounter, and with 
what indomitable pluck and perse- 
verance they were met and con- 
quered. They were a part of the 
education of the man ; and his ex- 
perience thus acquired taught him 
the advantage of not shrijiking 
from difficulties, and not giving up 
the battle until victory is assured, 
or defeat unavoidable. The lovers 
of economy, and they who com- 
plain of board at hotels where the 
charges are five dollars per day, 



10 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



Avill be -tj^lad to know that the 
entire personal expenses of young 
Wilson on this expedition were a 
dollar and five cents ; and yet there 
was not, and never was, a stingy 
Jrop of blood in his veins, as all 
who know him will abundantly 
testify. But he was determined 
to get on in the world ; and, while 
his mother was suffering for the 
necessaries of life, it was no time 
for him to' be spending money for 
luxuries or articles that he could 
well enough do without. He must 
get a start ; and the first cent and 
the first dollar were essential to the 
getting of the first thousand. 

In the morning he found his old 
Farmington friend, Hayes ; inter- 
viewed him to ascertain what he 
knew about shoemaking ; and be- 
fore night made a contract with 
one Legro to serve him five months 
to learn the art and mystery of the 
craft as then understood and taught 
in Xatick. So his trifling hun- 
dred-mile journey had enabled him 
to see Boston and Bunker Hill ; 
had saved him a year and seven 
months' labor demanded l)y the 
wily New-Durhamites ; and, what 
was yet a prcjfound secret, had 
started him on the road to the 
United-States Senate and the vice- 
presidency of the great republic. 
Mr. Legro, to whom he was now 
apprenticed, was an intelligent and 
worthy man, but one who held 
more strongly to the philosophy 
and practice of contentment as an 
aid to liapi)iness than the doctrine 
and practice of exertion. He was 



a good workman, pleasant, and 
faithful to his obligations, but ab- 
solutely in no hurry, and fully 
determined never to chafe at any 
defect of speed in the ordinary or 
any other rate of progress ; and 
therefore the team of Wilson and 
Legro did not pull evenly together. 
At the end of three weeks, Wilson 
offered terms of dissolution, which 
were accepted ; and, for the small 
sura of fifteen dollars, he was once 
more free, and possessed with some 
knowledge of the art of shoemak- 
ing, and more of the arts of shoe- 
makers, was ready for a new de- 
parture. He now engaged a good 
workman to give him instruction 
by personal, exclusive attention for 
one month ; Wilson to pay his own 
board, and the other party to re- 
ceive the pay for all the shoes 
both should make. 

At the end of this month his 
mechanical education was com- 
plete ; and ever after he was able 
to take work on his own account, 
and received the current price for 
the goods which were in demand 
at that time. He now moved into 
new quarters ; and the good lady 
where he boarded, years after, 
spoke very kindly of him, but said 
he would keep her from sleeping 
o' nights by the noise of his ever- 
lasting hammer, which was going 
all night. He could now earn 
his board and twenty dollars per 
month, and more by extra work at 
night ; which extra was sure to be 
performed. And still he was not 
content. The location was two 



LIFE OF HENRY "WILSON", 



11 



miles from the post-office and 
church : it was hardly a settlement, 
there being in the neighborhood 
only a half-dozen small shops, and 
no particular attractions in the 
way of society or prospective im- 
provements. Altogether was it 
inadequate to meet the demands of 
one in such an intense hurry to 
get on in the world. The rewards 
of labor, compared with Farming- 
ton, were immense : but there 
seemed to be " room higher up ; " 
and, in the autumn, Wilson took 
his earnings, and left for New 
Hampshire, where he invested them 
in poultry and other country-prod- 
uce, which he brought to Boston 
market, and disposed of at a price 
which did not more than cover 
expenses and the original outlay. 
As he had made a careful calcula- 
tion of the profits of this specula- 
tion in advance, the result aston- 
ished him ; and any glimmerings 
of fancy that he was destined to be 
a great merchant were effectually 
driven from his head by this ex- 
periment. 

He now returned to Natick, and 
engaged board with Deacon Cool- 
idge, who lived near the centre of 
the town, where now is a large and 
thriving village ; but then there 
were not more than a dozen houses 
all told. The selection of this 
house and family was very fortu- 
nate to Wilson in many ways. 

The deacon kept the town li- 
brary in his sitting-room, — a small 
collection of fifty volumes, perhaps, 
which had been published a long 



time, and were all regardiMl as 
standard books ; though not exact- 
ly the fifty books Starr King was 
wont to say contained all that 
any man need to read. RoUin's 
" Ancient History," Robertson's 
"Charles V.," "Life of Charles 
XH.," " History of the Late War," 
" Vicar of Wakefield," &c., were 
the chief works ; and they were 
read with eagerness and apprecia- 
tion. The deacon had an excel- 
lent wife ; and they received him 
as one of the family, and made 
him feel entirely at home ; and it 
was one of those clean, quiet, reg- 
ular New-England homes that to 
get into is a good substitute for a 
fortune. The influences were not 
only all good, but it secured a 
passport to the best society the 
village afforded ; and the young 
boarder was appreciated by the 
head of the family, and encouraged 
in all his efforts at improvement. 

The family had extensive con- 
nections in town ; and, later, the in- 
fluence of all was ardently given 
to assist him in his political ambi- 
tion and schemes. In the immedi- 
ate neighborhood lived a few ladies 
of great intelligence, and a dozen 
of young men near his own age, 
who were given to study, and 
greatly interested in all questions 
of moral improvement and the 
then vital topics of the time. 
To find so many young compeers 
with clear heads, correct habits, 
and honorable ambitions, was a 
great and agreeable surprise to 
him : and he had not completed the 



12 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



circle of their acquaintance when 
the tliouL^ht of organizing them 
into a society for mutual improve- 
ment suggested itself ; and he 
immediately began to talk up 
the scheme, and take measures to 
secure its accomplishment. The 
idea was favorably received. A lit- 
tle finessing secured the use of the 
district schoolhouse for meetings ; 
and on the 30th of June, 1835, 
fourteen 3'oung men assembled 
there, and formed the Young Men's 
Debating Society, — the scliool that 
first gave Mr. Wilson an idea of 
his powers, and the opportunity 
and training that ultimately in- 
sured his entering into public life, 
and enal)led him to maintain him- 
self in the positions he filled. His 
improvement as a speaker was 
rapid and continuous ; and he very 
soon, by his ability and application, 
assumed the undisputed leadership 
of the society. Many of the de- 
bates were memorable for the 
skill and power with which they 
were conducted, and are mentioned 
to this day, among the residents 
of the place, as events in the histo- 
ry of the period. One of the pe- 
culiar characteristics of Wilson in 
these debates was the intensity of 
his earnestness, lie was active in 
sucuring the selection of live ques- 
tions : and, if it fell to his lot to be 
designated to maintain the side 
not in accord with his convictions, 
he would procure a substitute if he 
could ; failing in that, ask to be ex- 
cused, or j)ersuade one of the op- 
position to exchange with iiim, so 



as not to allow himself to argue 
against his own convictions. He 
could get up no feeling on the 
wrong side ; and without feeling 
he could make no speech, and was 
always defeated. 

The year 1835 was a remarkably 
bad year for abolitionists. They 
were mobbed far and wide in Penn- 
sylvania and other States, and there 
were few localities where a public 
speech in favor of their principles 
would not bring the author's head 
into close relations with unsavory 
missiles. But these young men 
were, Avith about two exceptions, 
radical abolitionists : and, to the 
intense disgust of all citizens sup- 
posed to be in their right minds, 
they would have the question dis- 
cussed; and, more aggravating still, 
they always would manage to have 
the weight of the argument on the 
unpopular side. It would come so, 
and there was no help for it ; and, 
in the coming so, Wilson was a 
leading agent. The father of Mrs. 
Lydia Maria Child was a resident 
of Natick ; and his distinguished 
daughter spent much time svith 
him, taking great interest in the 
young men, and converting them, 
to her extreme doctrines. Her in- 
fluence was potential ; and the next 
si)ring, when Wilson made his first 
visit to Washington (a visit he has 
often described), he saw slavery 
with a conscience enlightened by 
the suggestions and arguments of 
that earnest and distinguished wo- 
man ; and all his convictions were 
intensified, and turned into resolves. 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON". 



13 



These resolves to oppose slavery to 
the bitter end he has faithfully 
kept, and the cause has never once 
been hazarded or lost sight of dur- 
ing his whole career. 

The elevation and improvement 
of laboring-men was one of the 
leading topics often under discus- 
sion at tlie meetings of this society, 
and among members in their social 
and casual intercourse. They gave 
it constant prominence and con- 
tinued study ; and, as a matter of 
course, Wilson was an ardent advo- 
cate of the rights of the workman 
as against all rival or opposing in- 
terests. As workmen in Natick 
and vicinity worked usually by the 
piece, or could if they chose, a lim- 
itation of hours by law was not 
agitated ; and, wages being good, 
strikes were not thought of. Op- 
pression there came in other forms, 
— in political and social ostracism. 
Standing in society was determined 
not by a man's merits, judgment, 
knowledge, and moral worth, but 
by his acres, stocks, and family. 
To change this was the problem ; 
and it was determined to make 
Natick the first battle-ground, 
to be extended as circumstances 
should warrant. But, to gain an 
advanced standing, obviously the 
first requisite was to be qualified 
for it. This was attempted by read- 
ing, thinking, questioning, debat- 
ing, writing, and seeking the most 
cultivated and intelligent society. 
The next point was moderate self- 
assertion in public affairs. In New 
England, town-meeting is public 



affairs ; and when Wilson and his 
associates tried their little experi- 
ment of having the nobodies lead 
off in town-affairs, instead of follow- 
ing the somebodies who always had 
led, there was great consternation 
in fogydom, and great railing when 
the experiment succeeded. Since 
that day, arguments and character 
have been able to meet dollars and 
dunces ; and mechanics have had it 
their own way in town whenever 
they have acted with sense and dis- 
cretion. The first move was not 
for office, but in favor of improve- 
ments in schools, roads, methods of 
conducting business, and so on. 
The young element made itself felt 
immediatel}^ ; and shortly it was the 
dominant influence in all public 
matters of a municipal or political 
nature, and made Natick one of the 
leading towns in Middlesex County, 
giving it a power far beyond its 
numerical strength, and a weight 
to which, on the score of property, 
it was never entitled. 

During all this time, work was 
never neglected. Every week a 
given number of shoes must be 
turned out, and that number must 
equal the efforts of the most in- 
dustrious. If the Debating Society 
took three hours of the time of an 
evening, some other evening of the 
same week must be prolonged three 
hours. The deacon's dingy shop 
had lights burning, in winter, till 
twelve o'clock, or later, most of the 
time ; and the skaters were tired 
out and in bed, usually, long before 
the thumping of Wilson's hammer 



14 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



ceased to annoy tlie slumbers of the 
people in tlu' adjacent lioiise. At 
the exjiiration of two 3'ears and 
five months, he had made and re- 
ceived pay for six thousand pairs 
of shot's ; and was the possessor of 
more than seven liundred dollars 
in cash, all his own earnings. But 
his piiysical s^'stem had given out ; 
he raised blood, and there were 
unmistakable signs of exhaustion 
which he could no longer ignore : 
so, accepting the advice of Dr. 
Kiltredge, he rested two months, 
and prepared for a term at 
school. 

He was now twenty-four years 
of age, and only ready to begin a 
school-education ; but, undaunted 
by nothing, he started for Strafford 



Academy, N. H., and remained 
there and at Wolf borough and Con- 
cord Academies for several terms, 
teaching district schools in the win- 
ter. The failure of a friend to 
whom he had loaned his earnings 
obliged him to abandon his purpose 
of perfecting an education ; though 
a chance friend, Mr. S. Avery, took 
such an interest in him, that he 
offered to board him gratis so long 
as he chose to remain at Wolf- 
borough and pursue his studies. In 
1834 he returned to Natick abso- 
lutely penniless, and obliged to ask 
credit for a suit of clothes that 
he was greatly in need of; but the 
credit was of short duration, and 
they were paid for the moment he 
could earn the money. 



CHAPTER HI. 



Manufacturing. — Tolitical Discussions. — Euterin;? upon Politics. — Marriage. — Election to 

Massachusetts Legislature. 



SHOE-BUSINESS was now 
greatly depressed ; work was 
scarce, and prices so low that Wilson 
decided to Ijccome his own emplo}^- 
(?r, and try his hand at manufactur- 
ing. He pur(;hased leather enough 
to maku a single case of cheap 
brogans ; made tlnMii willi his own 
hands; took them to iioston, and 
(.'Xchanged them for leather and a 
small sum ol' cash with thi; liiiu (tf 
Jonathan l''orl)Ush and C'o., whole- 
sale dealers on Blackstone Street, 



and one of the heaviesthouses in the 
shoe-trade. This operation proved 
somewhat better than working for 
a boss ; and, adding a hand to the 
business on wages, he soon was 
ready for another trip to Boston 
with two cases, and tlu' next time 
with three, until at length more 
hands were engaged, the stock in- 
creased, and in li-ss than a year he 
was nianufaeturing on a consid- 
erable scale, and adding moder- 
ately to his worldly goods. Ho 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON". 



15 



bought some land, built a shop, I 
and in 1840 a house on Central 
Street, not far from his present 
residence. 

The Young Men's Society con- 
tinued its operations ; and Wilson 
returned to it with increased zeal 
and enlarged ideas and ambition. 
At the academies in New Hamp- 
shire he had met in debate the 
picked young men whose talents 
had encouraged them to seek a 
liberal education ; but in his old 
associates, the mechanics of Natick, 
he still found sufficient ability and 
skill in polemics to make it neces- 
sary for him to study and exert 
himself in order to maintain his as- 
cendency. Indeed, he found them 
abler, on the whole, than the boys 
at school. Politics were raging, 
and these young men were in- 
tensely political. Late in the fall 
of 1839, a young man, Mr. Herring, 
who had recently moved to town, 
and a flaming Democrat, engaged 
in an animated talk on politics at 
the store where the post-office was 
kept, and where all political men 
met at mail-time to get their daily 
papers ; and, finding each had more 
to say than could be said at such 
times, Mr. Herring challenged Wil- 
son to a public discussion of the 
principles and merits of the two 
parties, Whig and Democratic. As 
no proposition could have more 
completely met Wilson's wishes, it 
was accepted with unconcealed sat- 
isfaction and alacrity: the arrange- 
ments were made at once, and the 
debate entered upon at the earliest 



practicable moment. It was largely 
attended, and immense interest was 
excited ; it being the first actual 
political encounter of the kind in 
this part of the country. Mr. 
Herring was a man of considerable 
talent, but not so thoroughly post- 
ed as his antagonist, and with far 
less experience in debate : so the 
result was a discomfiture, which he 
acknowledged with commendable 
frankness, and attributed, not to 
the want of merit in his cause, but 
to his deficient presentation of it. 
He proposed, therefore, to substi- 
tute another party to continue the 
discussion ; and, this being acceded 
to, arrangements were made for a 
meetins: in the Methodist church 
on the evening of March 20, 1840, 
between Henry Wilson of Natick 
for the Whigs, and Joseph Fuller 
of Framingham, chairman of the 
county committee, for the Demo- 
crats, to canvass the merits of the 
two political organizations. The 
preliminary excitement was great ; 
for politics had been increasing in 
interest, and the nation was stand- 
ing on the very verge of the great 
upheaval of 1840, the most memo- 
rable merely political campaign this 
country has ever experienced in its 
whole history. At the appointed 
time the champions appeared, ready 
for the great conflict, and excited 
by the momentous interests sup^- 
posed to be at stake in the discus- 
sion. An account of the debate- 
appeared in " The Boston Atlasy'"'' 
written by an eye-witness, whichi 
we give below : — 



16 



LIFE OF IIENPA' WILSON. 



Extract fuum a Letter ix "Bos- 
ton Atlas," dated Mau. 21, 1840. 

■•Last eveiiinj^ was tlie appointoJ 
time; and at an early liour the meeting- 
house was lilled by the farmers and 
mechanics of the vicinity, all eager to 
witness the mighty conflict. 

"The meeting being called to order, 
Mr. Fuller rose, and stated there was 
some misunderstanding between them 
about the subject; that he had come 
to discuss the effect of the Sub-Treas- 
ury Bill upon the currency, wdiile Mr. 
A\ ilson had come to discuss the cur- 
rency question in general ; and, this 
being the case, he did not know exactly 
what to say. 

" Mr. Wilson said he had furnished 
liis opponents with eighteen written 
charges against the administration ; 
and, if they did not understand the 
questiun, it was their own fault. After 
some desultory remarks, Mr. Fuller 
said, if Mr. Wilson would go on with 
his argument, he would reply to his 
general remarks as far as possible, and 
to the "Sub-Treasury part at an}' rate. 
Mr. Wilson then proceeded in a mas- 
terly speech to demonstrate that the 
government possessed the powei', and 
was in duty bound, to furnish the coun- 
try with a sound and uniform curi-ency ; 
that all the presidents, from Washing- 
ton to Van Buri-n. liud acknowledged 
the power, and actr-d un<ler it ; that the 
United-States Baidv furnished such a 
lurniicy ; that Gen. Jackson, when he 
jiut down the bank, reconciled the 
jieople to it by promising a better cur- 
r iir V : that the deposit bank system 
( an-^ed an over-i.ssue of bank-paper, fur- 
ni-hed tin; money for and stimulated 
sjiecidation, and was one of the main 
causes of our late trouble ; that Web- 



ster and others foresaw and [tredicted 
the result, wliich the administration 
denied ; that this system is now repu- 
diated by the same party ; and that the 
Sub-Treasury is brought forward as the 
great financial measure of the admin- 
istration, which he objected to, as 
proposing no relief to the people, as 
tending to crush the banks, destroy the 
credit system, and reduce the wages of 
labor and the value of property. In 
this connection he commented on the 
speeches of Calhoun, Walker, I5uchan- 
an, and Co., with just severity for their 
'flagitious' avowals, and wound up 
by an appeal to all no longer to put 
faith in an administration which had 
broken so many promises, and never 
fulfilled the tithe of a solitary one. 

'• Mr. Fuller now rose, and said that 
it was somewhat late, and he was not 
fully prepared to answer all the argu- 
ments of his opponent. He was hap[)y 
to state, however, that he was not op- 
posed to banks or credit or the labor- 
ing-man : and he was very happy to 
inform the audience that the Sub- 
Treasury would have none of the 
doleful effects ascribed to it; that it 
would not affect the currency at all ; it 
projiosed nothing of the kind ; it was 
simply a bill to i)rovi<le lor tlie collec- 
tion, safe-keeping, and disbursement of 
the public money ; and he \fould ask 
his antagonist to point out the section 
which proposed to cut down wages, 
ruin the country, &c. He expected his 
opponent would have taken the bill 
section by section, and stated his ob- 
jections to each in particular; but, as 
he had not done so, he shotdd leave the 
question, — it being late. — and his 
remarks, In; supposed, were not very 
interesting. These are his remarks 
almost verbatim, et literatim ; and this 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



discharge of the ' big gun ' has liad 
the effect of scattering the Locos like 
a flock of wild-geese in a whirlwind. 
They acknowledge another total rout, 
hut promise to try once more, and in- 
timate their intention of going to 
Boston to get a lawyer to come up and 
whip the Natick cobbler." 

The next discussion was on April 3, 
at the same place ; the Democratic 
side of the question being sustained by 
Hon. Amasa Walker, then a merchant 
in Boston. 

A little incident occurred at this 
meeting, which, trifling in itself, added 
considerably to the prestige of Mr. 
Wilson as a careful and strong debater, 
— one who, as the farmers say, " put 
up the bars " on leaving the field. 

In order to avoid a misunderstand- 
ing like the one at the previous meet- 
ing relating to the terms of the ques- 
tion, Wilson furnished his opponent 
with the form of the question in writ- 
ing : "■ Is the financial policy of the 
past and present administration bene- 
ficial to the country ? " 

Mr. Walker in his speech made no 
allusion to this question, but presented 
an argument in favor of a pure metallic 
currencj^, which was not then proposed 
by the administration, and had not 
been, though strongly advocated by 
Col. Benton, and believed in by many 
Democrats. 

To help Mr. Walker out of his 
predicament, the gentleman who had 
arranged the debate, and on whose be- 
half Mr. Walker appeared, rose and 
read the question as presented to him 
by Mr. Wilson, which was in a form to 
relieve Mr. Walker of his difficulty, 
and remarked that the original was at 
home in his " t'other jacket-pocket." 

The account in " The Atlas " states 



that the original prov^ed to be in the 
jacket-jwcket of Col. Chester Adams, 
chairman of the meeting, who produced 
it ; and it was found to correspond ex- 
actly with the statement of Mr. Wilson, 
and hence Mr. Walker was not extri- 
cated quite so cleverly as they had an- 
ticipatedf It was one of those little 
blunders which faulty memories will 
cause sometimes, and which inure to 
the benefit of matter-of-fact men who 
have a habit of putting things in black 
and white, and securing the evidence 
of third and responsible parties. 

Mr. Walker complimented Wilson 
highly for his ability and courtesy ; and 
the two parted with mutual respect, 
and have been good friends from that 
time forward. 

These publications in " The At- 
las " attracted attention in the 
vicinity. " The Boston Post," with 
characteristic stupidity, in absurd 
conflict with its pretended respect 
for laboring-men, and regard for 
their welfare and advancement, 
called him derisively the " Natick 
cobbler ; " and, thus advertised, he 
was soon an object of interest, 
and in demand at the log-cabin 
gatheiings, which were becoming 
frequent, and affording unusual 
chances for the display of patriotic 
and youthful eloquence. Speakers 
were rare : but the demand was 
inordinate ; and a mechanic who 
could stand on his feet and talk for 
an hour was not only a wonder, 
but a wonder of the right kind, 
and received with hearty appre- 
ciation. The public assemblies 
of that day craved two kinds of 



18 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



speeches, aiul seemed never to tire 
of either : hiiiuorous anecdotes and 
I)un<,a'iit facts were in equal de- 
mand ; and Henry Wilson was a 
walking dictionary of facts, which 
he dealt out with such accuracy, 
with names and dates, extracts 
and proofs, so formidable, that con- 
tradiction was preposterous with- 
out counter facts and proofs; and 
these were inaccessible to most 
speakers, and therefore impossible. 
When a hundred items were given, 
the denial of one or two only 
appeared ridiculous ; and Wilson 
had such an armory, that no man 
could follow him seriatim, and 
bring any thing in support of the 
counter-case. 

The result was conviction ; and 
large numbers of mechanics were 
led to abandon Democracy, and 
vote for Gen. Harrison for presi- 
dent, through his exertions. He 
spoke at Needham, Roxburv, Med- 
way, Framingham, Concord, N.ll., 
and numerous other places ; and 
was everywhere received with en- 
thusiasm, and listened to with 
profit ; and he established firmly a 
reputation as a successful cam- 
paigner. The campaign concluded 
in November, 1840, by the election 
of Harrison to the presidency, and 
his own election to the House of 
Representatives of Massachusetts 
as the member for Natick. 

A few months ])rior to the elec- 
tion, he was united in mariiage to 
]\li-%s llairiet M. Howe of Natick, 
a young lady of excellent mind, 
intelligent, amiable, and beautiful, 



but whose early loss of health and 
vigor prevented her taking the 
active part in society that she was 
fitted for. Nevertheless, she made 
many acquaintances in Boston and 
Washington, where she was highly 
respected ; and died, after a linger- 
ing and painful illness of several 
years, in May, 1870, dee])ly la- 
mented by all who knew her. 
Their only child, Lieut. Hamilton 
Wilson of the army, died in Texas 
in 18GG at the age of twenty. 

Although during this whole sea- 
son Wilson was absent from home, 
addressing public meetings, and 
attending conventions of his party, 
he kept his business well in hand, 
and succeeded, as the jOnase was, 
"in doing well." His fame as 
a speaker caused many men in 
the trade to seek his acquaintance ; 
and some of the most wealthy and 
eminent houses in Boston, New 
York, and other large cities, were 
greatl}' interested in him, gave him 
orders, and showed him attentions 
that were not only pleasant, but of 
great benefit. He was invited to 
their houses, and made acquainted 
with their experiences, and thus 
was taught to avoid dangers in 
the way of a beginner in business, 
and encouraged to hope for a 
prosperous business - career. His 
capacity for Inisiness was more 
than respectable; it was ample: 
•and nothing but an all-absorbing 
devotion and ajititude for ])ublic 
affairs j)revented him from taking 
rank as a man of business. 

For ten years Wilson was actively 



LIFE OP HENRY WILSON. 



19 



engaged in manufacturing shoes, 
producing from one thousand to 
two thousand five hundred pairs 
per week, chiefly adapted to the 
Southern trade ; for Wilson, though 
an abolitionist, did not doubt the 
honor or honesty of the Southern 
people, and was not averse to having 
the bondmen properly shod. One 
of his customers who had failed, 
and promised to compromise by 
paying fifty per cent of the indebt- 
edness, but proposed to raise the 
money in part by the sale of his 
slaves, received from Wilson a full 
discharge of the whole debt, and 
was requested never to send any 
dividend unless it could be done 
from moiiey not obtained by the 
traffic in human beings. 

As a manufacturer Wilson was 
enterprising and wide-awake, and 
let nothing but politics and phi- 
lanthropy divert his attention from 



business. He sought for tlu; liest 
workmen; paid the highest mar- 
ket-prices for work freely, without 
grudging or grumbling ; and was 
generous and fair in ;ill settle- 
m-ents of disputes which always 
arise between manufacturers and 
workmen regarding the quality of 
work and the price which should 
be paid for it. There were no 
lawsuits on these matters, and no 
quarrels to disturb the peace of 
the village, or furnish food for 
scandal. He was just in all his 
dealings, stood to his agreements, 
and was popular with all who had 
occasion to do business with him 
from first to last. His political 
principles concerning the rights of 
the laborer he carried into business ; 
and was never guilty of preach- 
ing abolitionism to the South, 
and oppressing his own work- 
men. 



CHAPTER IV. 



In the Massachusetts Legislature. 



THE appearance of Henry Wil- 
son in the legislature of Mas- 
sachusetts at the session of 1841 
was the beginning of a new era in 
the politics of the State. There 
had, it is true, prior to that time, 
been in the legislature many me- 
chanics, farmers, and laboring-men 
of great ability, who had done 
honorable service, and won for 
themselves a highly - respectable 



reputation, but no one of breadth, 
force, and persistency sufficient to 
impress upon the State policy his 
own distinctive trade-mark, or to 
become a power in afi^airs neces- 
sary to consider in movements of 
importance, or capable of adding 
any thing to the prestige of the 
State in the greater theatre of na- 
tional politics. And whatever may 
have been the ability or the oppor- 



20 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSOX. 



tuiiity or till' pniiiiise of any young 
man coniing from the ranks of the 
common people, and asserting him- 
self, or assuming a position in af- 
fairs, there was a prevailing senti- 
ment among those who held the 
leadership that modesty was a 
higld\-becouiing virtue, which, as- 
siduously cultivated, would surely 
and rapidly make of such a one 
all that he need become. The at- 
mosphere about the State House 
Avas so pervaded b}^ this opinion, 
that young men were very likely 
to he anxious to find the status 
which would meet the genuine ap- 
proval of our first men ; and cer- 
tainly none of our first men would 
be likel}- to see it anywhere near 
the front, or where crowding would 
be an inevitable result of a de- 
parture from the true and well- 
defined line of commendable mod- 
esty. 

The advent of Wilson was the 
commencement of a new order of 
ideas on this subject; and, whilst 
he was well received and gener- 
ously treated l)y some of the old 
managers, there were not a few 
who regarded him as a man sadly 
out of place, without the ability 
to maintain even a respectable po- 
sition, and destined to an early and 
disgraceful obscurity. But this 
was an undt-r-estimate of the man 
altogether, iiiid is so confessed. 
He has sicailily advanced in repu- 
tation and iiilluence, and so easily 
passed njaiiy of those who at first 
thought liini of too little conse- 
quence to Ijc despised, that they 



have never been able to under- 
stand him or themselves. 

During the first session of the 
legislature Mr. Wilson was con- 
stant in his attendance, making 
liimself familiar with the routine 
of business, and sufficiently unde- 
monstrative and retiring not to 
arouse the jealousy of any who 
might be disgusted with a zeal not 
according to knowledge. He mere- 
ly did enough to let it be known 
such a person was there, and was 
holding to views that were sound 
as Massachusetts regarded sound- 
ness. 

In the autumn of 1841 he was 
re-elected, and commenced his sec- 
ond term of legislative dut}' on 
the first Wednesday of January, 
184'2. At this time business was 
much depressed in New England, 
and, in fact, in all parts of the 
country. Importations were very 
heavy ; money was scarce ; the 
people were without emi)loyment ; 
wages were low ; and, though we 
were in that blissful stiite that 
goods ootild be had cheap, there 
were vast numbers who could not 
partake of the boon, not having 
the wherewithal to bu}'. Wilson 
was placed upon the committee on 
manufactures ; and they were in- 
structed to report upon the cause 
of the depression of business, and 
its cure, — a duty wliiili was as- 
signed to Wilson on accoiuit of 
his well-known interest in what- 
ever conctTUcd the (lucstion of 
woik and wages. He made an 
elaborate report, accompanied with 



LIFE OP HENRY "WILSON. 



21 



resolves, which met general com- 
mendation, and won for him a 
marked distinction. We were then 
at the lower en'l of the scale of 
reduction of tariff duties, under 
the compromise scheme of Henry 
Clay enacted nine years before. 
This was a concession to the 
threats of the free-traders ; and, 
instead of the universal riches that 
were to flow in under the provis- 
ions of the vaunted revenue-tariff 
and low duties, there were great 
depression and prostration of busi- 
ness, much suffering, and general 
complaint. Though the logic of 
the free-traders was as unanswer- 
able as it is to-day, it was somehow 
painfully apparent, that, under the 
free-trade system, the millennium 
had not come in ; and in a time of 
general and profound peace, with 
the old national debt all paid, and 
the country in the full enjoyment 
of the happy financial schemes of 
the Democratic party, the govern- 
ment had to borrow the money to 
meet its current expenses. 

Wilson in his report took ground 
that free trade was a failure : it 
did not fulfil its promises ; and a 
revival of business could only be 
assured by a new tariff on the 
principle of specific discriminating 
duties. The revenue-tariff theo- 
rists alleged that duties could be 
laid for no purpose but revenue ; 
and the tax must be laid upon 
every article imported, according 
to value. Wilson argued that this 
would be an actual discrimination 
against the poor, and in favor of | 



the rich ; and a violation of the 
just principle of taxation, which 
requires property to pay its pro- 
portion. Take tea, for instance, 
and subject it to an impost duty: 
as the poor man's family consumes 
as many pounds as the rich man's 
family, the poor man will pay the 
same tax that the rich man does ; 
and, as the number of poor men 
largely exceeds the number of rich 
men, revenue from tea will largely 
fall upon the poor. But this was 
not all the injustice : for all the tax 
levied on tea would be taken off 
of something else, — off some arti- 
cle of domestic manufacture; and 
then the reduction on that article 
of domestic manufacture would 
enable the foreign manufacturer to 
come in and supply our market 
with the same goods, thus cheating 
the poor man of his chance to raise 
the money with which to buy his 
tea. A tax on tea, therefore, 
throws the burden upon the poor 
for the benefit of the rich, and 
compels the laborer, in effect, to 
pay a bounty to the foreign manu- 
facturer, by which he is able to come 
in and deprive the laboring-man 
of work. That is, the tax on tea, 
if levied on articles which can be 
produced in this country, would 
exclude a portion of the foreign 
goods, the making of which would 
then fall to the operative here. 
Discriminating duties, hence, are 
necessary to protect labor from 
being discriminated against; and 
the argument was so clearly put, 
that the Democrats on the com- 



LIFE OP HENRY "WILSON. 



mittee, after making a sophistical 
ari,nimeiit in favor of a revenue- 
tarilY pure and sinij)le, were com- 
pelled to assent to the principle of 
discriminating duties, though the 
two j)ositions are in direct conflict. 
\\ la-n you discriminate, it is in 
favor of something or somebody ; 
and the principle, once admitted, 
overthrows the horizontal theory 
altogetlier. 

It was also argued that our peo- 
ple are all consumers, and a ma- 
jority are producers ; that apparent 
inequalities are thus harmonized or 
equalized ; that what we as con- 
sumers pay extra for in higher 
prices of goods we consume is 
made up to us in higher prices of 
goods we produce, — to all who pro- 
duce ; and, as it is the rich who do 
not produce, the share not made 
up to them is divided among the 
producers. The tariff, in conse- 
quence, inures to the benefit of the 
producer ; and the producer, in all 
cases, is the man who labors. The 
tariff, by checking importation, 
gives the laborer employment ; em- 
ployment brings wages ; wages en- 
able him to buy and consume ; 
buying and consuming create de- 
mand ; demand makes business 
good ; and good business makes 
general prosperity. The influence 
of the tariff on diversifying labor 
and stiinuhiting invention, the mu- 
tual dependence of producer and 
consumer, and other points, were 
stated with a clearness that com- 
manded great attention, and won 
for Mr. Wilson a meed of praise 



rarely awarded to a young legisla- 
tor. The resolutions were such as 
Wilson can stand by to-day, and 
were as follows : — 

"Resolved, That a division of labor 
by whicli the people sustain and sup- 
port each other is indispensable to the 
prosperity of tin's Commonwealth. 

'^ Mesolued, That discriminating du- 
ties levied upon the productions of 
foreign labor tend to create a diversity 
of employment among our own citizens 
by enabling tliem to pursue occupations 
they would be compelled to abandon if 
brouglit into direct competition with 
the cheap labor of Europe. 

" Resolved, That duties upon foreign 
imports may, without injustice to any 
section of the country, be so assessed 
as to encourage our diversified pursuits ; 
and no policy can meet our approba- 
tion which does not guard with paren- 
tal care the interests of the laborer, and 
promote his prosperity. 

" Resolved, That productions are the 
result of labor; and aii}'- policy which 
seeks to cheapen i)roducts by encour- 
aging the imjDortation of such com- 
modities as we produce tends to 
embarrass our laboring and producing 
classes by diminishing their wages 
and suppressing their employments. 

" liesolvcd, Tliat the time lias now 
arrived when the exigencies of the gov- 
ernment and the interests of the peo- 
ple demand a radical revision of the 
revenue laws ; and we regard it as the 
imperative duty of Congress to encour- 
age domestic industry by the assess- 
ment of speciilc and discriminating 
duties. 

" Resolved, That our senators and 
representatives in Congress will con- 
sult the interests of this Common- 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



28 



wealth and the wishes of their 
constituents by using their best en- 
deavors to carry out the views con- 
tained in these resolutions." 

The abilities of Mr. Wilson as a 
practical statesman, and his devo- 
tion to the cause of freedom and 
the welfare of laboring-men, made 
it an object for the Whig party to 
put him on the senatorial ticket 
for Middlesex County in 1843 ; and 
he was one of five gentlemen who 
bore the honors and insults of this 
occasion. The county had been 
Democratic, and this year the peo- 
ple failed to make choice ; but the 
Whigs, having secured a majority 
of the legislature, filled the va- 
cancies by electing the Whig can- 
didates ; and, soon after the two 
houses were organized, Wilson was 
installed as a member of the 
Massachusetts Senate, and made 
chairman of the Joint Standing 
Committee on the Militia. The 
militia in the State, owing to the 
long peace, neglect, and the heavy 
expense attending drills, had been 
at a low ebb, and its use had come 
to be doubted by the tax-payers ; 
and its honors had not been sought 
with eagerness by that portion of 
the people who could afford tlie 
expense of wearing them, and by 
others scarcely at all. 

Wilson was too well posted in 
history and in the knowledge of 
human nature to trust implicitly 
in the appearances favoring a long- 
continued state of universal har- 
mony, and for some time had inter- 



ested himself in military affairs ; 
had joined the volunteer military 
organization ; had been elected ma- 
jor, then colonel, of the Middlesex 
Regiment, and subsequently brig- 
adier-general of the Third Brigade ; 
and was warmly in favor of reviv- 
ing the military spirit in the old 
Commonwealth. As chairman of 
the committee, he now made a 
strong effort to revive the military 
organizations in the State, to secure 
enlistments, to promote the drill 
and efficiency of the various com- 
panies, and put the whole system 
on an honorable and permanent 
basis. To this end he drew up an 
able report and bill, with provis- 
ions to meet the main objects he 
had in view, and designed to dis- 
tribute more equally the burdens 
of expense in equipment and drill 
to which the young men of the 
State had been subject. 

This was the first serious move- 
ment toward that preparation for 
war which enabled Gov. Andrew, 
seventeen years later, to astonish 
the nation by sending to the de- 
fence of Washington the first fully- 
equipped troops, whose presence, 
perhaps, saved the capital of the 
nation from the hands of the in- 
surgents at the commencement of 
the civil war. 

In 1844 he was re-elected to the 
Senate, and maintained his stand- 
ing as a wise and able legislator, 
and made some gain in the confi- 
dence and esteem of the leaders 
of public opinion; but, in defer- 
ence to a prevailing rule which 



24 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



confined the term of service of a 
senator to two years, he declined 
a re-elec-tiuii in 1845, and was 
nominated and chosen to the House 
from the town of Natick. 

The c'k'fiion of James K. Polk 
to the ])rc'si(k*noy, and the annexa- 
tion of Texas, had so strengthened 
the proslavery party in the coun- 
try, that the expediency-politicians 
■were ranging themselves generall}* 
on the Southern side ; and some 
of those who had been true to 
the better sentiments of the Whig- 
party were greatly depressed in 
sjiirit, and inclined to regard a 
further contest as useless. How 
far the re-action had extended was 
not known ; and whether any of 
the old leaders of the antislavery 
sentiment would be returned to the 
legislature in the House was un- 
certain. It was certain, however, 
that, without leaders there, the 
cause would be a sufferer ; and 
the town of Natick resolved to 
prevent, if possible, the occurrence 
of such a contingency. Wilson was 
chosen at this election with special 
reference to the slavery'' question, 
and for the purpose of insuring the 
continued agitation of the subject 
at the State House, and prevent- 
ing the retrograde movement from 
proceeding further. 

The sentiment of the people of 
Massachusetts, though sometimes 
dubi<jusly expressed, was always 
oi)posed to slavery, and in I'avor 
of such action as should curtail its 
])(jwcr, and (•rij)[)le its energies. 
'J'liis was always the opinion of 



Henry Wilson : and he believed 
not only in the absolute righteous- 
ness of the antislavery cause, but 
in the policy of incorporating it 
into the political creed of the 
party to which he belonged. It 
was the fashion in ls;;7 and 18:^58, 
at the conventions of the Whig 
and Democratic parties in the 
counties, to pass resolutions of a 
mild type in favor of freedom, 
the right of petition, and in op- 
position to mobs ; and even Mr. 
Hallett, who afterwards became 
celebrated as the great resolution 
manufacturer of the Democracy, 
used at that period to draught 
sympathetic resolves to catch abo- 
lition votes. But later, as the cri- 
sis tended more strongly to a head, 
it became evident that the General 
Government was under th(> control 
of slavery ; and that the Democ- 
racy, who were responsible for 
the administration, would be com- 
pelled to sustain it, or dissolve. 
Two courses, therefore, were left 
open to the Whig party : namely, 
to go counter to slavery, make 
a direct issue, and attract to its 
banner the spirit of freedom, of 
progress, and of the nineteenth 
century ; or fall back upon the 
ideas of the dark ages, and run a 
race with Democracy for the Devil's 
influence and co-o])i'ration. 

At this point a third party arose, 
called the " Liberty party," based 
on the idiM that any effective op- 
{)osition to slavery politically must 
come from the disintegration of 
the old parlies, and the eombina- 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



25 



tion of their materials into the new 
organization. Wilson thought the 
body of the Whig party was sound 
on the question, and that the whole 
power of its organization could be 
carried against slavery whenever 
the test could be directly applied ; 
and his desire was to work with 
the mstrument already made, rath- 
er than try to make a new one. 

In 1841 he and his old comrades 
of the Debating Society, and a few 
other kindred spirits in Natick, 
held frequent consultations in the 
shoe-shop of George M. Herring, 
now of Farmington, N.H., where 
plans, principles, prospects, and 
duties were discussed, and the 
incipient action taken which re- 
sulted in the movement afterwards 
known as " the conscience Whig 
party," of which Charles Francis 
Adams, Sumner, Phillips, Hoar, 
Allen, Palfrey, and Wilson were 
the leaders. This was a small 
beginning, much like the com- 
mencement of Wilson's financial 
schemes when he worked all day 
for a cent ; but it was a begin- 
ning, and. came to something in 
time. It was decided that there- 
after no men should be chosen 
delegates to any Whig convention 
from Natick who were not in active 
accord with the proposed move- 
ment ; it was decided to consult 
with the leading Whigs in all the 
adjacent towns, and secure their 
co-operation in the same object as 
regarded those towns ; it was de- 
cided among them to write articles 
for the press in favor of the object, 



and to secure control of " The Nor- 
folk-County American," which was 
in the market, and use its columns 
to promote the cause ; it was de- 
cided that the inlluence of the 
Church should be obtained so far 
as was proper ; and, finally, it was 
decided to organize the sentiment 
of the party in the State by secur- 
ing the names of such infiuential 
persons as could be obtained in 
behalf of some definite course of 
action. These decisions were all 
carried out. Rev. Samuel Hunt 
brought the slavery question into 
the conference, and secured de- 
sired action. Another of the ac- 
tive members of the coterie pur- 
chased " The American " in 1842, 
and gave the movement the benefit 
of its columns ; and this was the 
first paper in the State prominent- 
ly devoted to the cause of the con- 
science Whigs. 

A paper was drawn up by Mr. 
Wilson, and circulated for sig- 
natures, calling a meeting in 
Boston for consultation and ex- 
tended effort ; and thus was in- 
augurated the grand movement 
which ultimately split the Whig 
party, created the coalition which 
made Boutwell governor, and sent 
Charles Sumner to the United- 
States Senate. There was a deal 
of work in it, however ; and, for 
the succeeding ten years, Wilson 
was driving it in all possible ways 
with never-failing energy, and a 
faith that wavered not for a mo- 
ment. The church, the caucus, 
the county and state conventions 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



of the piirty, the press, the stump, 
tlif House of Representatives, and 
the Senate, were all turned to 
aeeount. and marshalled by him to 
do battle against iniquity. It was 
all work, this part of it, and 
work that made no brilliant show ; 
work that could only be done 
quietly ; that would not bear 
vaunting ; for which there were 
no clapping of hands, banquets, 
rousing cheers, and applauding 
criticisms in th^ daily press: but 
i*. was work that saved the repu- 
tation of Massachusetts, and work 
that at last proved the salvation 
of the country ; for, had Massa- 
chusetts not kept the banner al- 
ways flying in the way she did, 
there would have been no Union 
£0-day, and consec^uently no peace. 
It \H not pretended, of course, 
that other minds in other places 
were not agitated and earnestly at 
work to solve the great problem of 
a nation's freedom. All that is 
•claimed is, that this organization 
by Wilson and his immediate as- 
sociates was the one which set in 
motion the conscience Whig move- 
ment ; and that movement pre- 
vented the entire relapse of the 
Whig party of the State into the 
bands of the Lunts, Choates, and 
Austins, who were allied to the 
Southern wing of the i)arty, and 
were engaged in a hot crusade 
against the antislavery efforts of 
the time. It was the beginning of 
tlie movement that made Massa- 
chusetts th(i head and front of the 
column of freedom. This might 



have come in some other way, 
possibly ; but it is the way it did 
come, and seems to have been a 
necessary link in the great chain 
of events which finally overthrew 
the iustittition of slavery. 

At the commencement of this 
session (184G), Gov. Briggs laid 
before the legislature some resolu- 
tions concerning slavery and the 
action of Massachusetts which had 
been adopted by the legislature of 
Georgia. Mr. Wilson promptly 
moved their reference to a special 
committee, and offered an order 
that they be instructed to report 
a preamble and resolution which 
should express in fitting terms the 
hostility of Massachusetts to the 
institution of slavery. 

The Whigs and Democrats joined 
in opposition to this order, but 
were met by the member from 
Natick with an argument of great 
length, and of such force and 
power that his opponents were glad 
to tender a compromise in the 
shape of an amendment, leaving 
the committee to act without in- 
structions. As the committee were 
supposed to be all right, and cer- 
tain to report i\Ir. Wilson's own 
views, the compromise was ac- 
cepted as an easy way to let his 
opponents down, and save them 
the mortification of defeat by an 
open vote on his original motion. 

In this speech Wilson took the 
ground that we must destroy slave- 
ry, or slavery will destroy liberty. 
We must restore our government 
to ita original and pristine pui'ity. 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON". 



27 



The contest is a glorious one. Let 
us be cheered by the fact that the 
bold and daring effort of the slave- 
power to arrest the progress of 
free principles has awakened and 
aroused the nation. That power 
has won a brilliant victory in tlie 
acquisition of Texas ; yet it is only 
one victory in its long series over 
the constitution and liberties of 
the country. Other fields are yet 
to be fought ; and if we are true 
to the country, freedom, and to 
humanity, the future has yet a 
Waterloo in store for the support- 
ers of this unholy system. He 
called upon the party to accept 
these issues, which were vital ; and, 
if victory came, to hail and improve 
it ; and, if defeat should be their lot, 
they would still have the glory of 
having deserved success. For him- 
self, he was ready to act with any 
man or party — Whig, Democrat, 
Abolitionist, Christian, or Infidel — 
who would go for the cause of 
emancipation. 

But Mr. Wilson was too hasty 
in his judgment as to the probable 
action of the committee. Having 
gained the point of leaving them 
free, efforts were at once put forth 
to secure a mild and evasive report, 
which Avere successful ; and he was 
compelled to make a minority re- 
port. In the House, Wilson moved 
his resolution as a substitute for 
that of the committee ; and it was 
carried by a vote of a hundred 
and forty-one to fifty-three, but 
was lost in the Senate. 

The report of the minority was 



a masterly production, and created 
a profound sensation in the House 
and in the State. It set forth, 
that, by the action of the two 
houses of Congress, Texas had 
been blended and indissolubly con- 
nected with the republic. Every 
act in its history, from its first in- 
ception to its final consummation, 
had been a deep disgrace. The 
fermenting of discord, the levying 
of troops, the speculation in lands, 
the dark intrigues which had been 
plotted, presented a mass of rot- 
tenness and corruption. The ob- 
ject of annexation was confessed 
to be the extension and perpetua- 
tion of human bondage. Inspired 
by that purpose, the South has 
won one of the most brilliant vic- 
tories in her long series of victories 
over the constitution of the coun- 
try and the liberties of the people. 
Our Union is not the Union our 
fathers made. That Union has 
been trampled beneath the iron 
heel of the triumphant slave- 
power. We stand on the threshold 
of a new Union, which the annexa- 
tion of a foreign nation has created. 
A new page is opened in the his- 
tory of the republic. Already the 
victorious hand of the slave-power 
points the way to further acquisi- 
tions. In this crisis of the country, 
has Massachusetts nothing to say, 
nothing to propose, nothing to 
do? Shall we, indeed, now give 
up the struggle, confess ourselves 
vanquished, think all is lost ? 
Shall Massachusetts, now that an- 
nexation is accomplished, erase all 



28 



LIFE OP HENRY WILSON, 



her solemn protests, shut up as a 
great mistake the history'- of a fifty- 
years' struggle against the influ- 
ences of slavery, and, by quiet sub- 
mission and a change of policy, 
obtain the forgiveness of tlie slave- 
power? or shall she yet trust in 
justice and tniili, and, ho\\ever 
the lights of other States may 
waver, stand herself unfaltering on 
the lofty eminence she has never 
3'et deserted or betrayed, and use 
free speech, the free press, the free 
ballot, the freedom of remon- 
strance, and her other rights and 
powers, narrow though they be, 
in such a manner as finally to blot 
out the greatest disgrace and the 
most fruitful source of danger 
which was ever entailed on any 
nation ? The report closed with 
the declaration that the experience 
of sixty years afforded ample evi- 
dence tliat only by an adherence 
far more stern than that of our 
fathers to the principles of the 
Declaration of Independence, and 
a use far more vigorous than theirs 
of all the powers of self-preserva- 
tion and defence which the Consti- 
tution has secured to the freemen 
of the Union, will the t nion and 
our liberties be preserved, and 
with them the hopes of tlie race 
fur long years to come. 

This rejjort of IltMny Wilson, 
his speeches on the main question, 
and his i)ersonal exertions to carry 
the legislature in i'avor of the re- 
solves, accomplished tin; purpose 
of the jteople of Natick in return- 
inir him to the lower brancli of the 



General Court, gave him the op- 
portunity to display his powers of 
leadership on a field worthy and 
every way adapted to his capacity 
and his wishes, and saved the 
cause from a further temporaiy 
retrocession and defeat. It must 
be borne in mind that all this was 
in 1846, or before ; that it was all 
accomplished before Charles Sum- 
ner had taken the field as a politi- 
cian or lecturer, and two years 
before Horace Mann had opened 
his powerful batteries upon the 
advocates of oppression and un- 
righteousness. Their splendid 
achievements are not to be depre- 
ciated, certainly ; but Wilson is an 
older soldier than either, though 
younger in years, and was engaged 
in hot conflict years before they en- 
listed or took part in the campaign. 

The succeeding year, and in 
1849, he was returned to the House 
again, and in 1850 to the Senate, 
of which body he was chosen 
president, filling the station with 
the same ability and success that 
he did all positions into which he 
was called. 

When President Fillmore visited 
Massachusetts, Wilson was chair- 
man of the committee of welcome, 
and made the ollicial address ; and 
performed the same duty when the 
great Hungarian revolutionist and 
leader, Kossuth, came to Boston, 
and received an ovation, that in 
heartiness, and numbers ])resent, 
had then never been equalled in 
the city. The able manner these 
duties were performed by Wilson 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON". 



29 



was a surprise to many who had 
looked upon him as a mere politi- 
cal manager, unable to sustain 
the dignity of the State on occa- 
sions of such imposing character. 

For the session of 1849 he was 
the Free-soil candidate for speaker ; 
but, the party being in the minor- 



ity, he was not elected. During 
the period we have now passed in 
this narrative, he was the presid- 
ing officer at many conventions of 
the party; was four years chair- 
man of the State Central Commit- 
tee, and engineer in general of 
their principal movements. 



CHAPTER V. 



As a Politician. — Candidate for Congress. — Whig Convention. — Bolting. — Free Soil. — 
Coalition. — Election of Sumner. 



THE death of John Q,uincy 
Adams created a vacancy in 
the Eighth Congressional District 
of Massachusetts, in 1848, that no 
man could expect to fill with equal 
distinction and to the satisfaction 
of the people ; and yet, on the day 
before the convention met to make 
the nomination for his succession, 
Wilson was ahead of any other 
candidate. This fact having been 
pretty well settled, it became ap- 
parent to the opponents of Mr. 
Wilson that he could be prevented 
from receiving the nomination only 
by one course ; and that was to 
obtain the consent of Mr. Horace 
Mann, the Secretary of the Board 
of Education, to enter the lists 
against him. Mr. Mann was at 
the height of his fame as a bril- 
liant orator, statesman, and philan- 
thropist ; had long been identified 
with the institutions which are 
the glory of Massachusetts ; had 
a national reputation not surpassed 



by any living man, and a larger 
personal acquaintance in the dis- 
trict than even John Quincy 
Adams. He was a native of Nor- 
folk County, which formed the 
body of the district, but resided 
then in Newton, the largest of the 
only five Middlesex towns in the 
district (Natick being one) ; and of 
course had only to signify his will- 
ingness to accept a nomination to 
obtain it. Some gentlemen of 
Dedham went to see Mr. Mann 
the night preceding the nomina- 
tion, and, after long persuasion, 
obtained his assurance, that, if 
nominated, he would not decline ; 
and so the nomination was ten- 
dered with much unanimity. Wil- 
son's strength was so great, 
notwithstanding the formidable 
reputation of his competitor, that 
he was chosen to represent the 
district in the National Whig 
Convention then about to assem- 
ble at Philadelphia to nominate 



30 



LIFE OF HENRY "WILSON. 



Gen. Taylor for the presidency 
and to commit suicide, — two pur- 
poses it succeeded in accomplisli- 
iui;'. Taylor was elected, it is true, 
but was succeeded by Fillmore, 
one of those unfortunate New- York 
politicians who believe that a con- 
glomeration of office-seekers, with- 
out any principles in common, can 
form an administration, and manage 
national affairs to the satisfaction 
of every bod3\ This was attempted : 
but neither the prestige nor abili- 
ties of Daniel "Webster and Ed- 
w\ard Everett could make it a 
success ; and the party died all the 
same, as was foreseen by Wilson 
and Charles Allen. Wilson went 
to the convention with the clearly- 
avowed intention of having in- 
corporated in the platform the 
first fundamental republican prin- 
ciple in a form as strong at 
least as the Wilmot Proviso, 
which -simply proposed that sla- 
very should not be farther ex- 
tended. But the convention Avas 
unequal to the occasion ; nomi- 
nated Gen. Taylor, who was not 
known as a Whig, and who was 
not committed to any Whig prin- 
ciples ; and refused to concede any 
thin'4 to the antislavery sentiment 
of tlie j)arty. Wilson and Allen 
bolted, — not much of a bolt, the 
Wiiigs said : only two uninfluen- 
tial men from down East in fanati- 
cal Massachusetts ; that was all. 
The phick of the men, however, 
attracted attention ; and either 
would have gone out alone, had 
the other remained. The pluck, 



and the principle which they could 
not sacrifice, saved the act from 
contempt ; and, deep down in many 
hearts that dared not acknowl^edge 
it, there was a profound feeling of 
respect for these men which mere 
dickering politicians never arouse 
when they break away from their 
party associations. 

When Wilson arose and an- 
nounced his intention not to abide 
by the action of the convention, 
there was a wild uproar and howl- 
ing that would have added to the 
credit of Bedlam. A delegate from 
North Carolina secured silence af- 
ter a while by suggesting tliat the 
gentleman was injuring no one but 
himself : not a remarkably' wise 
observation in view of the fact 
that Wilson's reputation is Avorld- 
wide to-day, and that delegate 
would be unrecognized were his 
name given. 

Wilson came home ; wrote an 
address to his constituents givina; 
an account of proceedings, and ex- 
plaining and defending his course 
in withdrawing from the conven- 
tion. He justified his action on 
the ground that the resolutions of 
the convention Avhich nominated 
him demanded it, and that he 
could not do otherwise without 
violating his own professions, and 
convictions of duty. He closed by 
saying, " Bitter denunciations have 
already been heaped upon me ; yet 
I see nothing to retract. No hope 
of political reward, no fear of ridi- 
cule or denunciation, will deter 
me from acting up to my convic- 



LIFE OF HENRY "WILSON. 



31 



tions of duty in resisting the ex- 
tension of slaveiy and the arrogant 
demands of the slave-power." 

A few days after Wilson's re- 
turn home, he was honored by an 
invitation to meet and confer with 
the "godlike Daniel" and a few 
of his particular friends in Boston 
upon the situation. This was in 
the olden time ; and those were the 
daj^s when, in and around Boston, 
there were people who thought 
Daniel Webster knew a few things 
concerning politics and kindred 
topics. If report be true, Mr. 
Webster was a man, who, with all 
his virtues and good sense, had not 
been in tlie habit of seeking the 
counsel and advice of the small- 
potato class of politicians; and he 
was reputed to have no stomach 
for humbugs in politics or other 
things. The sending for Henry 
Wilson to meet the wise men of 
the east in conference was cer- 
tainly an indication that in high 
quarters our young statesman was 
not considered altogether a no- 
body, and that he had attracted 
the attention of people not much 
in the habit of looking for objects 
with a microscope. 

The conference was held. Mr. 
Webster was pleased, made the 
satirical remark that a " North " 
had been discovered, and seemed 
gratified with the opening pros- 
pects. But Webster was getting 
old ; and the new country, though 
discovered, was so far off, and so 
difficult to reach, that he never 
emigrated thither, and on the 7th 



of March, four years later, sold his 
land-warrant for promises to pay 
that were worthless, and went to 
protest at maturity. It is not prob- 
able that at this time Mr. Webster 
contemplated the possibility of 
Henry Wilson's representing Mas- 
sachusetts in the United-States 
Senate for a period as long as his 
own, and that he would originate 
and successfully carry through 
twenty or thirty important meas- 
ures to his one. He was consult- 
ing with a prophet, and didn't 
know it. The greatest man of his 
time seeking advice of the shoe- 
maker, rejecting it, and the latter, 
by following it, reaching the pedes- 
tal on which the great man stood ! 
— what a theme for moralists and 
poets ! what a lesson for statesmen 
and politicians ! 

The Free-soil party was now 
formed ; Wilson being one of the 
chief advisers and workers to that 
end. He was alive with energy, 
and boiling over with enthusi- 
asm. Conventions, mass-meetings, 
school-district gatherings, speeches, 
consultations, and appeals in writ- 
ing, were the order of the day ; 
and he was everywhere and at all 
points urging on the glorious 
cause. The little rill started in 
Capt. Herring's shop was becoming 
a mighty river. There Avas tre- 
mendous excitement ; and even 
those old fellows who could not 
see any cause for it still felt there 
was something in motion, — an 
underground swell that was shak- 
ing the solid earth, and might end 



32 



LIFE OF IIEXRY WILSON. 



in disaster or a gfeneral wreck. 
Tlieu came the Buffalo Convention, 
where Wilson was one of the lead- 
ing spirits, and the nomination of 
Martin Van liuren and Charles 
Francis Adams for president and 
vice-president. 

The nomination of Van Buren, 
who was not a pre-eminent anti- 
slavery man, was effected very 
much in the same way that Greele}' 
was nominated at Cincinnati. The 
convention was captured by the 
New- York politicians, and fell into 
such hands that suspicion of its 
moral purity was excited ; and its 
champions, instead of striking at 
the enem}' all the time, were put 
on the defensive. " The Trib- 
une " was shocked at the moral 
degeneracy which could unite with 
a Democratic faction men like 
Adams, Sumner, and Wilson, even 
for the purpose of resisting sla- 
very. It was abominable ; it was 
infamous ; it was damnable. Prob- 
ably no mortal ever suffered such 
intense pangs at the conduct of 
others as Greeley did when Gid- 
dings, Leavitt, and Palfrey shook 
hands over the shallow chasm with 
Dix, Tilden, and Van Buren. 
What would he have felt had Hen- 
dricks, Voorhees, and John j\Ior- 
risey, been included ? 

But (icn. TayliH- was elected; 
and, as before remarked, the Wliig 
party, having lost its vital princi- 
})le, di(Ml, ()!•, what is the same thing, 
became a mere faction, and from 
that day went out (jf existence as 
a political power. 'J'hc movement 



with Van Buren was not a success 
in so far as the election was con- 
cerned ; but it broke the solidity of 
the Democratic ranks, and taught 
some lessons in political engineer- 
ing to Wilson that were valuable, 
and which he pro})Osed to apply in 
the future operations against sla- 
very. In the Democratic party of 
Massachusetts were a few men of 
liberal views, progressive ideas, 
and fine abilities, to whom the 
iron collars prepared by the Ma- 
sons and Slidells and Davises of 
the party for general ever3'-da3'' 
wear were offensive ; j)rominent 
among whom were N. P. Banks and 
George S. Boutwell, two gentle- 
men, like Wilson, from the ranks, 
and capable of great things. 

The Whigs had lost their tem- 
per, and settled down into a state 
of dogged and sullen perversity. 
They wanted to die, and were 
willing to be kicked to death, but 
not willing to be j^ushed or pur- 
suaded into any course that led to 
resuscitation or hope. The Free- 
soil party, not being in the major- 
ity, and not being able to dispel 
the stupidity that had seized upon 
the Whigs, was in a position to 
need allies, and not too proud to 
accept them. Wilson was for 
moving on (he enemy's works, and 
conceivt'd tlic ideaof \\orking into 
the United-States Senate a man 
who would l)e able from that ])osi- 
tion to wake u]) the drowsy na- 
tion, lie suggested to Banks and 
Boutwell the feasibility of united 
operations, to a limited extent, be- 



LIFE OF HENRY ■WILSON. 



33 



tween their two parties. Mr. 
Banks immediately decided that it 
woidd not be possible to make any 
arrangement, however honest and 
disinterested, which would not be 
so misconstrued and misrepre- 
sented that it would be defeated. 
Mr. Boutwell was more cautious, 
but, on the whole, inclined to the 
opinion that the experiment could 
not succeed ; or, at any rate, the 
risks were too dangerous. But 
Wilson was aware that the idea 
was new to them ; and resolved, 
after they had pondered it a few 
days, to broach the subject again. 
In a little time he found the plan 
was gaining in favor ; and, by care- 
ful and judicious pressing, it short- 
ly began to take with the leading 
men of both the Free-soil and Dem- 
ocratic parties, and finally devel- 
oped into what was termed the 
" coalition," and became successful. 
The plan was a very simple one : 
merely to run separate candidates 
for governor, and unite on mem- 
bers of the legislature in towns 
where the two parties, by com- 
bining, could elect their men. 
As it required a majority vote to 
elect the governor, there would be 
no choice by the people, and the 
legislature would make the gov- 
ernor. It was understood from 
the start that the Free-soil party 
wanted the United-States senator, 
and would unite for nothing less ; 
and it was understood that they 
wanted Charles Sumner. In order 
to carry out such an arrangement, 
it was of the first importance that 

3 



good men sliould be selected as 
candidates. Tiie Democrats found 
in George S. Boutwell the man for 
the occasion. He was very young 
to stand as a candidate for guber- 
natorial honors in the ancient 
Commonwealth wliere years were 
thought essential to such a dig- 
nified station ; but he was an in- 
trepid debater avIio had won laurels 
in the House, a cool calculator, free 
from all nonsense, a man of the 
people, and without damaging affil- 
iations. He was nominated, and 
received the support of his party ; 
but there was no choice, and so he 
went to the legislature as one of the 
constitutional candidates, where, 
by aid of the Free-soil meml)ers, 
he was elected governor. Wilson 
was chosen president of the Sen- 
ate ; and Banks, speaker of the 
House : but this was not contem- 
plated in the original arrangement, 
and was not a thing that could 
have been considered until after 
the legislature had been elected. 

The Free-soil folks having per- 
formed their part of the stipulation, 
and elected Boutwell governor, 
uow nominated Charles Sumner for 
senator, and presented him for the 
suffrages of the Democratic mem- 
bers of the legislature. To those 
who are unacquainted with the 
kinds and quantities of medicines 
the doctors of the old school were 
in tlie habit of prescribing for their 
patients, this would naturally be re- 
garded as about the heaviest dose a 
not very sick party could be called 
upon to swallow. It wouldn't 



34 



LIFE OP HENRY WILSON. 



be any thing now : there are indi- 
cations that it might be agreeable 
to the Democracy to take a small 
dose of Sumner. IJiit Democracy 
in 1851 was not the sick man it is 
to-tlay : it was strong and robust, 
and, as a national organization, 
under control of the slave-power. 
Its great horror was abolitionism ; 
and Charles Sumner was, in its 
esteem, about the most virulent 
sample of that vile drug that could 
be produced. The Democrats had 
secured their governor ; and here 
was a fine opportunity to hedge, to 
put country above party, to rise 
above paltry bargains, and perhaps 
save the Union, — a thing very 
much in the Democratic line at that 
period. Having been paid in ad- 
vance, it could be done without 
loss ; and so, when they came to 
ballot for the senator, the coalition 
which had been strong enough to 
elect Boutwell was found not quite 
strong enough to elect Sumner. 

And so they balloted and ballot- 
ed, and then consulted and ballot- 
ed, and balloted and consulted : 
and days went by, and there was 
no choice ; and weeks went by, and 
still no choice ; and Charles Sumner 
was not yet a United-States sena- 
tor. Will he ever be ? That was 
a great question. For the future 
fame of Simincr it was ilie great 
question; and a momentous one 
it was. Two things were re(|ui- 
.site at this ininiensely fritieal time, 
— in(loiiiit;il)le perseverance in the 
leadership, and absolute integri- 
ty in tiie leaders, of the Free-soil 



party. The leader of the party 
was the president of the Senate, 
the originator of the coalition, — 
Henry Wilson. The scheme of the 
Democrats who did not vote for 
Sumner was, to dictate the man 
whom they would vote for ; and 
he, owing thus his election to them, 
would find a hook in his nose by 
which the schemers could control 
him. It was a dangerous moment ; 
and the scheme had been concocted 
by that craftiest of manipulators, 
Caleb Gushing, who was a member 
of the House, and never idle, 
especially when any profound 
games were waiting to be played. 
There were various devices sug- 
gested and canvassed ; but the only 
one which concerns this biography 
is that which included Wilson as 
the prime figure. When they had 
become weary with repeated vot- 
ing, and there were hints among 
the Free-soil men that the case 
was hopeless, and Sumner was out 
of the question, the Democrats, 
who had scattered, sent one of 
their number to Wilson with the 
offer, that if Sumner could be with- 
drawn, and Wilson substituted, 
there should be an election on the 
next ballot. The offer was not 
taken ; and then Caleb came in 
person, and gave his j)ersonal guar- 
anty that the snarl shoidd be un- 
ravelled at once if Wilson would 
but stand in Stunner's shoes as the 
senatorial candidate. 

But Wilson could not be moved. 
A seat in the Semite was within 
his grasp : he had but to say the 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



35 



word, and take it. He declined, 
and insisted tliat not a man should 
think for one moment of voting 
for any one but Sumner : to do 
otherwise would demoralize the 
coalition, and turn it into a jobbing 
concern for the benefit of individ- 
uals. Charles Sumner was the 
nominee. The coalition was not 
formed for his personal benefit, 
nor for George S. Boutwell's : 
it was formed to give Massa- 
chusetts a State government not 
under the control of powerful cor- 
porations, and a senator who 
could wake up the echoes of free- 
dom in the Capitol of the nation ; 
and they must keep voting till 
doomsday, if need be, to accom- 
plish this result. 

The firmness of Wilson saved 
the day : and, when it was found 
impossible to move him, one Dem- 
ocrat changed ; and, on the 
twenty-sixth ballot, Charles Sum- 
ner was elected. 

When the deed was done, people 
saw how it was done, and how it 
only could have been done. No 
one doubted that Wilson elected 
Sumner; and Mr. Sumner wrote 
him a letter of thanks, in which he 
acknowledged, that but for his 
foresight, consummate skill, and 
unexampled pertinacity, the elec- 



tion could not have been effected. 
Charles Sumner, therefore, as a 
senatorial gift to the nation, was a 
present from Henry Wilson; and 
the Democratic fuglemen who now 
have such a high appreciation of 
the value of the gift have a grand 
opportunity to reward the giver by 
assisting him to a new position of 
honor and usefulness. 

This was the most memorable 
contest for the senatorship that 
any State in the Union ever wit- 
nessed, whether we take into con- 
sideration the state of parties and 
their relations to each other, the 
long severity of the contest, the 
even balance of the ballotings, or 
the tremendous results that have 
ensued. The hopes of Wilson 
were realized in full. Sumner in 
the Senate was the right man in 
the right place. He bombarded the 
old hulk of slavery with a vigor 
that told, and damaged it beyond 
recovery. Sumner had his oppor- 
tunity, and improved it for his own 
benefit and for the benefit of the 
nation ; and he may live to see 
the day when he will be glad to 
acknowledge, that, in parting com- 
pany from the man who first set 
Inm up in business, he made the 
grandest mistake of his whole 
life. 



36 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



CHAPTER VI. 



Constitutional Convention. — Electetl by Two Tow-ns. 

Prcsideut pro tern. 



Leadership. — Debates. — Chosen 



r'F'lHE convention to revise the 
_L Constitution of Massachu- 
setts met in Boston May 4, 1858, 
and made choice of N. P. Banks, 
Jan., for its presiding officer. It 
was composed of men of eminent 
ability from all the leading profes- 
sions and occupations of life. Men 
like Jacob Bigelow, Luther V 
Bell, and Foster Hooper, of the 
medical profession; George Put- 
nam, Dr. Blagden, Dr. Braman, 
Dr. Lothrop, and C. W. Upham, 
of the clergy ; and nearly all the 
lawyers of distinction in tlie State, 
— were among the members. Ru- 
fus Choate, Sidney Bartlett, B. F. 
Hallett, B. F. Butler, Peleg 
Sprague, Marcus Morton, Joel 
Parker, Otis P. Lord, Simon Green- 
leaf, Charles Sumner, George S. 
Hillard, R. H. Dana, and hosts of 
others, judges, professors, district 
attorneys, and practitioners, were 
there, constituting a galax}^ of 
names that could hardly be matched 
by any bar in the count ry. Sprague 
liad been a distinguished member 
of tlie United -States Senate in 
till' palmy days of ("lay, Calliouii, 
Wcifsier, Silas Wright, and Tom 
Benton ; Choate had ijeen United- 
States senator, was now attorney- 
gt-ncral, ami at IIk; height of his 
fame ; while (jlhers had been chief 
justices of States, governors, and | 



candidates of their parties for many 
years. The ablest merchants and 
business-men were also there in 
force, — George B. Upton, George 
S. Boutwell, James Read, J. T. 
Stevenson, James M. Beebe, and 
others ; with political orators of 
brilliancy like Edward L. Keyes, 
Anson Burlingame, H. L. Dawes, 
Charles Allen, N. P. Banks, and 
mau}^ too numerous to mention. 

In a convention of such men, no 
man of inferior abilities would be 
able to stand a single moment in a 
leading position ; but Henry Wil- 
son, the mechanic, the " cobbler " 
if you will, was not only a member, 
but was accorded the position to 
which, as a representative man 
and an organizing power, he was 
entitled. 

He was made chairman of the 
committee to provide the order of 
business, with Choate, Dawes, 
Cushman, Beach, Nayson, Hale, 
and Aspinwall for colleagues. The 
splendid parliamentary abilities of 
N. P. Banks, another mechanic, 
secured for him the presidency of 
the convention ; ami its next 
highest and e(pially-imi)()rtant po- 
sition was taken b}' Wilson, — a 
position analogous to the ehair- 
nianshiji of Ways and Means in the 
House. There was one peculiarity 
attending: the election of Wilson 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



37 



to the convention. He had been 
chosen by two towns, Natick and 
Berlin ; and the circumstances 
were these : He had been one of the 
originators of the convention ; was 
in favor of certain reforms that 
were desired by the majority of the 
people ; and his talents and infor- 
mation were needed in the body. 
But Natick politically was then 
so nearly equally divided, that his 
election was not to be counted upon 
as certain. To make sure of his 
being there, the people of Berlin 
consented to adopt him, they hav- 
ing the power to elect any one, 
and he being highly esteemed and 
respected there. He therefore ac- 
cepted their offer of a seat, and 
declined the suffrages of his own 
townsmen. The night before the 
election, however, it came to the 
comprehension of the people of 
Natick, that, in so distinguished 
a body as would soon assem- 
ble, the honor of being repre- 
sented by a man who must 
necessarily be a cipher therein 
was not to be coveted ; and, ral- 
lying, Wilson was triumphantly 
nominated in lieu of the other 
man, and the next day elected, 
proving that two stools do not 
necessarily involve a lodgement, to 
be avoided by the party who 
mounts them. Wilson went over 
to Berlin, called the people to- 
gether, explained to their satisfac- 
tion, and obtained a unanimous 
release of his obligation to serve 
them ; they accepting Gov. Bout- 
well, who had failed of an election 



in his own town of Groton. But, 
at the opening of the convention, 
Berlin was not represented, the 
vacancy made by the declination 
of Wilson not having been filled 
yet; and one of the longest and 
ablest debates of the session grew 
out of this particular case, in which 
was involved the question of the 
powers of the legislature and the 
sovereignty of the people. 

This debate commenced May 6, 
and lasted till May 18, during 
a portion of the sittings ; and 
was participated in by Hallett, 
Train, Parker, Allen, Choate, Wil- 
son, and other leading speakers. 

The points to-day are not agi- 
tated, and there is no need to ex- 
plain them ; but the conclusion of 
Wilson's speech in reply to Choate 
will show the different ideas of 
the two men, and the classes they 
represented. 

Mr. Wilson. — "I do not, Mr. 
President, regret the time con- 
sumed by this debate. It has 
been conducted with eminent abil- 
ity ; and I am quite sure we have 
more distinct views of the ques- 
tions so fully and ably discussed 
that will not be lost to us. Opin- 
ions have been advanced by gen- 
tlemen, which, in my judgment, are 
at war with the whole doctrine of 
popular sovereignty as defined in 
oui' constitutions, pronounced b}' 
our judicial tribunals, understood 
by our statesmen, and practised by 
our people, since the sovereign 
power passed from England to the 
American people. ' The real, ac- 



38 



LIFE OF HENRY "WTLSON. 



tual, livincj sovereignty of the peo- 
ple is not yet com]nx'hen(led by 
some men of learninj^ and talent. 
Tiiey regard it, as Mr. Calhoun 
regarded the Deelaration of Inde- 
pendence, as a 'rhetorical flourish.' 
Our history is marked by what Mr. 
JMadison calls the ' little, ill-timed 
scruples ' of men who indulge, un- 
der the mask of zeal for adhering to 
ordinary forms, their secret animos- 
ity' to the substance contended for. 
" Mr. President, the gentleman 
from Boston (Mr. Choate), in his 
brilliant speech the other day, 
which so delighted us all, implored 
us to ' spare the rust of the Con- 
stitution.' I had thought, sir, 
that our free democratic institu- 
tions were to be ever new, bright, 
perennial. I had thought that 
these institutions were to be ever 
renewed by the popular intelli- 
gence ; made to conform to the 
ever-advancing spirit of the ages, 
and the wants of the living people. 
I had thought that the marked fea- 
ture of our institutions was, that 
they were ever to be kept free from 
tlie ' rust of ages,' and to be im- 
bued with the living, actual life 
of the people. I would not allow 
rust to gather upon our constitu- 
tion of government, but would 
keep it as luight as when it came 
from the hands of the statesmen 
who framed it, and of the i)eople 
who breathed into it vitality and 
force." Choate was not fond of 
glittering things, except his own 
speeches ; and Wilson was for pol- 
ishing up occasionally. 



On the I'Jth of i\Iay, Wilson 
presented the report of the com- 
mittee in favor of making single 
senatorial districts on the basis of 
pojjulation ; taking the ground 
distinctly that there was no reason 
Avhy Lowell should be cut down in 
the basis because of its ten thou- 
sand women, or Boston because 
of its fifty thousand Irishmen and 
Germans. " Upon political ques- 
tions there may be differences of 
opinion ; but upon nineteen-twen- 
tieths of the questions that come 
before the legislature, your wo- 
men, your foreign population, and 
your persons who cannot vote, 
have a deep and abiding personal 
interest." And again, same de- 
bate : " I am not one of those 
who expect to advocate the right 
of women to vote. But one thing 
is certain : I could not make an 
argument against it ; and I would 
like to see the man who could 
make such an argument. And I 
go farther: I believe, that, upon 
most of the questions that concern 
this commonwealth and this coun- 
try, they have their influence ; and 
if thev had also the right to vote, 
the country would be none the 
worse governed. The foreign 
population is engaged in the busi- 
ness - affairs of life, — in our 
churches and our schools, in the 
various pursuits of social life, and 
in every thing that is consistent 
with the duties of citizens ; and 
they inlluence the opinions of 
their neighbors and friends. Sir, 
the honorable representative on 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



39 



this floor from Boston, if he be 
worthy of the seat he fills, will 
pay deference to the sentiments of 
that portion of the community who 
cannot vote, as well as that por- 
tion who can." These sentiments 
Avere uttered nineteen years ago. 

On the 27th of May Mr. Wilson 
made a strong speech against 
changing elections from the major- 
ity system to a plurality, asserting 
that reforms spring from the bosom 
of the people, who are often check- 
mated by caucuses and combina- 
tions of politicians ; and the plural- 
ity system aids the latter by forcing 
upon the voters a choice of evils. 
He declared that many of the evils 
of popular government in the sev- 
eral States were directly traceable 
to the plurality system of elections. 

On the 28th he spoke again on 
the question of making aliens in- 
eligible to the office of governor, 
and said, " I see no necessity of 
putting these words, ' citizens of 
the United States,' into the Consti- 
tution. I am content that a citizen 
of Massachusetts shall be govern- 
or of Massachusetts if the people 
choose to make him so. According 
to my understanding of the Consti- 
tution, a man ivho is not a natural- 
ized citizen of the State or the 
Union could be elected governor 
of this Commonwealth to-day. . . . 
I care nothing about the place 
where a man was born : I do not 
wish to bring the question into this 
discussion, and I do not like to have 
such words as 'foreign birth' in- 
corporated in the Constitution." 



On the 30th May he spoke 
against high-sounding titles for 
State offices, and against a propo- 
sition to make the lieutenant-gov- 
ernor the presiding officer of the 
Senate. 

On the 7th of June Mr. Wilson 
distinguished himself by a long 
and very able argument in favor 
of the secret ballot, which would 
enable the poor man to vote with- 
out being under fear of losing em- 
ployment in consequence of voting 
contrary to the wishes of the rich 
and domineering manufacturer. He 
quoted the opinions of Grote, Ma- 
caulay, Cobden, Bright, O'Connell, 
and other liberal and reform 
statesmen in Europe, in favor of 
the scheme, and of the Duke of 
Wellington, Sir James Graham, 
and Sir Robert Peel, of the Tories, 
against it. Referring to the latter, 
he said, " Sir, we have a class of 
men in this country who have just 
such opinions. They always dis- 
cover we are going to ruin. We 
have been marching on for sixty 
years in a course of progress unex- 
ampled in the history of the world ; 
and all that time these men have 
thought that the country was fin- 
ished and ' fenced in,' and that all 
progress tended to ruin. Massa- 
chusetts has had, and now has, her 
full share of these timid creatures, 
who have little confidence in, or 
knowledge of, the people. If these 
men would mingle more with the 
masses, they would imbibe some- 
thing of that spirit of hope and 
confidence which animates the 



40 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



jieople in their oiiwanl march in 
the career of democratic })roi,a"ess 
and refurm. ... I trust this con- 
vention Avill })ut into the Con- 
stitution of Massacluisetts this 
fundamental principle ; and I trust 
they will also put into the Consti- 
tution the vivd-voce mode of voting 
for the legislators ; and that while 
we have secured to the people the 
right to vote, with no eye upon 
them but the e3'e of God, free from 
dictation and intimidation from 
any quarter, we shall force the 
representatives to vote in the 
broad and open light of day." 

On the 11th of June he was on 
the floor advocating the abolition of 
the poll-tax as a ([ualilication for 
voting. He said, " Men sliould, and 
they will, pay their poll-taxes, if 
they are able to do so ; but, if they 
are not able to, they should not 
have their rights denied them be- 
cause they are poor. If a man 
does not pay his tax, you have the 
power to arrest him and to imprison 
him. If he has the means to pay, 
he will, rather than go to jail ; but 
if he is poor, if he cannot pay his 
tax, he ought not to be compelled, 
or forfeit his rights. Poverty is 
Ijittcr enough to be borne without 
disfranchisement. The man of toil 
wiio lias reared a family, contrib- 
uted liundrcds of dollars l)y indi- 
rect taxation to support the gov- 
ernment, wlio may perhaps have 
given liis bl<jod to the defence of 
the country, wlio lias paid his 
taxes cheerfully for years, should 
not, as life begins to cast its shad- 



ows over him, as his arm begins 
to fail and his step to totter, be 
degraded because he, in his old 
age, is compelled to drink the cup 
of poverty. That constitutional 
provision which would deny to the 
poor man who could not pay his 
tax the right to vote should be 
forever blotted out of the constitu- 
tion of a Christian commonwealth. 
Another reason for its adoption is 
this : Suffrage is a right which 
should be sacredly guarded. No 
man should hold this right subject 
to the mistakes of a board of as- 
sessors." It would appear that he 
was at his post every day, watching 
jealously all the propositions calcu- 
lated to curtail the rights of the 
working-man and the poor, ready 
at all times to enter upon the defence 
of the humble, knowing exactly 
where every measure infringes on 
the interests of those who have no 
money and no influence, and able 
to point out the faults of systems 
that have kept men out of their 
rights, and denied them the privi- 
leges that would enable them to 
rise. 

On the 20th, 21st, and 22d of 
June, the militia was under discus- 
sion ; and, as the riiihts of colored 
men to serve as soldiers or become 
members of the independent mili- 
tary organizations were to be de- 
termined by the action of the 
convention, Wilson felt called upon 
to face the then existinjx stroncr 
prejudice against the colored race, 
which, till now, effectually ex- 
cluded them ; and accordingly 



LIFE OF HENRY 'WILSON. 



41 



threw himself into the debate 
with great zeal on their behalf, 
speaking several times with ear- 
nestness and his usual ability. He 
proposed an amendment to the 
provision reported by the com- 
mittee in these words : " Resolved^ 
That no distinction shall ever be 
made in the organization of the 
volunteer militia of this Com- 
monwealth on account of color or 
race." This proposition, so uni- 
versally popular now, and conceded 
by even the great Democratic party 
to be out of the contest, was then 
thought fanatical and dangerous to 
the last degree, and was opposed 
by the most liberal Democrats, 
and assailed as being in violation 
of the spirit and letter of the laws 
and constitution of the United 
States. Another strong objection 
to the amendment in the minds of 
many was, that it would not only 
admit colored men into the militia, 
but unnaturalized foreigners; but 
Wilson claimed this right for all, 
irrespective of race or color. The 
tone of these speeches is indicated 
by the following extract: "The 
first victim of the Boston massacre 
on the 5th of March, 1770, which 
made the fires of resistance burn 
more intensely, was a colored man. 
Hundreds of colored men entered 
the ranks, and fought bravely in the 
Revolution. Graydon in his Me- 
moirs informs us that many South- 
ern officers disliked the New- 
England regiments because so 
many colored men were in their 
ranks. At Red Bank they received 



the commendation of the com- 
mander for gallant conduct. 

" A colored battalion was organ- 
ized for the defence of New Or- 
leans ; and Gen. Jackson publicly 
thanked them for courage and con- 
duct. When the country has re- 
quired their blood in days of 
conflict and trial, they have given 
it freely, and we have accepted ; 
but in times of peace, when their 
blood is not needed, we spurn and 
trample them under foot. I have 
no part in this great wrong to a 
race. Wherever and whenever we 
have the power to do it, I would 
give to all men of every clime and 
race, of every creed and faith, free- 
dom and equality before the law. 
My voice and my vote shall ever be 
given for the equality of all the 
children of men before the laws of 
the Commonwealth of Massachu- 
setts and the United States." 

The difference between Mr. Wil- 
son, and the Whigs represented by 
Choate, and the Democrats repre- 
sented by Mr. Hallett, was ex- 
pressed by the latter, when he 
declared, that although the Massa- 
chusetts Constitution made no dis- 
tinction on account of color, and 
made the governor commander-in- 
chief of the militia, should the 
people elect a colored man gov- 
ernor he could not take command 
of the militia, because, by the laws 
of Congress, he would not be eligi- 
ble to office in the militia, or be 
connected with it. 

June 28, Mr. Wilson spoke 
against the proposal to prohibit 



42 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSOK 



the loaning of the credit of the 
State for public improvements, tak- 
ing the ground that past experience 
had fully justified the policy, and 
that the people could be trusted to 
exercise the power judiciously. 
He remarked, " I do not think 
wisdom will die out with this con- 
vention. I look upon this conven- 
tion as a very able body of men ; 
but there will be wiser men to 
come here twenty years hence. I 
hope, twenty years hence, another 
convention will sit here ; for, what- 
ever may be the result of this con- 
vention, in my judgment the ex- 
pense attending it will be more 
than repaid by the fact that for 
two years the people of the State 
have been discussing fundamental 
principles, and examining those 
great principles that underlie our 
Constitution, and that are em- 
bodied in our fundamental laws." 

July 6, there was a little brush 
between Mr. Hillard of Boston 
and the member from Natick. 
Sharp language was used by both 
these gentlemen, for which they 
mutually apologized ; and no per- 
manent ill-will was maintained by 
either. Wilson said it was the first 
time in eight years' service in de- 
liberative bodies that he had 
allowed offensive personalities to 
escape him, and he disclaimed all 
malice and evil intent in the pres- 
ent instance. 

July 19, Wilson spoke earnest- 
ly in favor of an order limiting 
the pay of the members to days 
of actual attendance unless they 



were detained at home by sickness, 
and gave some valuable statistics 
relating to the non-attendance of 
members of the House of Repre- 
sentatives. 

On the opening of the conven- 
tion, July 21, information came 
that Hon. N. P. Banks, its presi- 
dent, was detained at home by 
sickness : whereupon the record 
shows the following action : — 

" Mr. Rantoul of Beverly moved 
that the convention proceed to the 
election of a president pro tempore 
by nomination. 

" The motion was agreed to. 

" Mr. Rantoul nominated Henry 
Wilson of Natick, and moved that 
he be president pro tempore of the 
convention. 

" The motion was unanimously 
agreed to. 

" The secretary appointed 
Messrs. Briggs of Pittsfield, and 
Boutwell for Berlin, to conduct 
Mr. Wilson to the chair." 

George N. Briggs and George 
S. Boutwell were two ex-govern- 
ors of the State ; and hence their 
selection to do the honors of the 
occasion. Those persons who are 
troubled about the qualifications 
of Mr. Wilson to preside over the 
Senate may see in this action 
of the Massachusetts Constitu- 
tional Convention, which had 
among its members Briggs, Bout- 
well, Butler, Dawes, Choate, Sum- 
ner, and Dana, an indorsement 
that should be sufficiently con- 
vincing so far as authority can go, 
and one that few men could hope 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



43 



to obtain. Many of the most im- 
portant orders and amendments 
a<;lopted by the convention were 
framed, introduced, and engi- 
neered by Henry Wilson ; and its 
work, as finally completed, was 
more the result of his energetic 
labor and thought than that of any 
single mind. 

It failed before the people in 
consequence of not meeting the 
views of the Irish voters in an im- 
portant respect ; but for this Wil- 
son was not responsible : but most 



of the amendments proposed have 
since been incorporated into the 
Constitution by legislative action 
and the direct vote of the people. 

The speeches of Mr. Wilson in 
this convention are all character- 
ized by strong common sense, lib- 
eral views, devotion to popular 
rights, force of statement, and 
manl}^, vigorous eloquence. They 
were crowded with facts, and will 
ever remain a solid and positive 
contribution to the cause of consti- 
tutional and legislative reform. 



CHAPTER VII. 



The American Movement. 



THE Massachusetts Constitu- 
tional Convention of 1853 
incorporated a provision forbidding 
the appropriation of public money 
for the support of sectarian schools. 
This was unquestionably the cause 
of the defeat of the Constitution 
before the people ; a large portion 
of the Irish Catholic vote being 
thrown against the Constitution, 
it was alleged, on account of this 
provision. This action created 
some feeling in the State, and 
probably contributed somewhat to 
the rapid growth of the American 
organizations which sprang up in 
the spring and summer of 1854. 

The proposition of Mr. Douglas 
to repeal so much of the Missouri 
Compromise as prohibited slavery 
west of the Mississippi, and north 



of 36° 30', agitated Congress, and 
profoundly stirred the popular 
mind. The aggressive policy of 
the South, the servility of North- 
ern politicians, and especially the 
conduct of the Southern Whigs, 
alarmed the people, and begat a 
strong desire on the part of many 
for a union of effort, among the 
friends of freedom and of the 
country, against these encroach- 
ments. While the Kansas-Nebras- 
ka Bill was pending in Congress, 
Mr. Wilson took part in the can- 
vass in New Hampshire. On his 
return to Massachusetts, he pre- 
pared and delivered a speech in 
several places in opposition to this 
repeal, and in favor of the union 
of all its opponents. It was print- 
ed, and received the warm com- 



44 



LIFE OF HENEY WILSON. 



ineiulations of Mr. Seward, Mr. 
Chase, and Mr. Sumner. Hoping 
to do something to bring about this 
union. Mr. Wilson went to AVash- 
ington, was present when the meas- 
ure passed the House, consulted 
with Dr. Bailey and many of the 
leading members of both Houses 
of Congress, and returned to Mas- 
sachusetts inspired with the hope 
that a great party would soon be 
formed on the basis of freedom, that 
would render effective the opposi- 
tion of the people to these fearful 
and endangerinor aggressions. 

On the 31st of Maj^ a State 
convention of the Free-soil party 
was held in Boston. Theophilus 
P. Chandler presided ; and a series 
of resolutions especially denun- 
ciatory of the Fugitive-slave Law 
and the Kansas - Nebraska Act 
were passed. Eloquent addresses 
were made by Amasa Walker, John 
Picrpont, Jolin A. Andrew, Joshua 
II. Giddings, and John P. Hale. 
The resolutions and speeches alike 
breathed the spirit of unity and a 
desu'e for the union of the people 
in behalf of imperilled liberty. 

Mr. Wilson addressed the con- 
vention. After referi'ing to the 
principles, measures, and policy 
of the free Democracy, he said, 
" While we adhere to these prin- 
ciples, we say to the meml)ers of 
all parties that we are ready to act 
with them. If there is a ' forlorn 
hope ' to be led, we will lead it ; and 
others may take and wciii- the 
honors. But we go with none who 
do not wear our principles upon 



their foreheads, and have them en- 
graved upon their hearts." He 
maintained that the first duty of 
the freemen of the Nortli was the 
extermination of the forty traitors 
who had voted for the Kansas- 
Nebraska Act, and to elect a 
hundred and fifty-eight Northern 
representatives in favor of its 
repeal, and for the repeal also of 
the infamous Fugitive-slave Act. 
"Let us," he said, "yield up our 
organizations, every thing but our 
principles, to establish the great 
party of the North. The time has 
now come to forget the past, ob- 
literate the Fugitive-slave Act as 
well as the Nebraska Act, and to 
do what we can to place the 
country perpetually on the side of 
freedom. The time has now come 
for the freemen of the North to 
form one great progressive Demo- 
cratic party that shall guide the 
policy and control the destinies of 
the republic. Whether the stand- 
ard-bearer of that party shall be our 
own trusted leader of 1852, or a 
member of the Whig or Democratic 
party, he shall have the unwavering 
support of the free Democracy." 
These sentiments were warmly and 
enthusiastically applauded. 

During the next few weeks 
several conferences were held in 
Boston between leading Free-soil- 
crs and a few members of the 
Whig and Democratic parties in 
favor of uniting the opponents of 
the repeal of the Missouri pro- 
hibition, and of forming a political 
ortianization that should be untram- 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON". 



45 



melled by slaveholding alliances. 
But the leading men and presses 
of these parties discouraged the 
movement ; and but few Whigs or 
Democrats took part in it. In 
spite, however, of these discourage- 
ments, papers were circulated call- 
ing a mass convention of the 
people, to be held at Worcester 
on the 20th of July. 

When the convention assem- 
bled, it was found tliat but few of 
the dominant party were present. 
Free-soilers, who had labored for 
months to unite the opponents 
of the Kansas-Nebraska measure, 
saw, as clearly as did their ene- 
mies, that the attempted fusion 
was a failure, and that it had little 
support from either the Whig or 
Democratic party. Leading Whig 
presses characterized it as " a mere 
Free-soil movement," a " trap " for 
the Whigs, and pronounced it, as it 
was, " a failure." Undiscouraged 
by this opposition to the attempted 
fusion of parties, the convention 
declared in favor of a new organiza- 
tion, to be called the " Republican " 
party ; and earnest speeches were 
made in its behalf. Mr. Wilson 
took strong ground in favor of 
the fusion of parties on anti- 
slavery principles, preferring fu- 
sion, he said, to a coalition. 
" We are assembled to-day," he 
said, " to forget the differences en- 
gendered by past conflicts, and to 
unite for the overthrow of the slave- 
holding oligarchy. The Free-soil- 
ers will follow where the banner 
on which their principles are in- 



scribed shall lead. If coalitions 
had been necessary to advance the 
cause of freedom by the election 
of Hale, Sumner, and Chase, to 
the Senate of the United States, I 
am ready for a coalition. But a 
union of men who agree in princi- 
ple is far better. If we cannot 
have union, however, give us some 
arrangement which will advance 
those principles, and place cham- 
pions of those principles on the 
floor of Congress to battle for 
them." 

A State convention of the 
Republican party was held at 
Worcester on the 7th of Septem- 
ber. But few members who had 
acted with the Whig and Demo- 
cratic parties were present. It 
was composed mainly of Free-soil- 
ers. Mr. Wilson was nominated 
as candidate for governor ; and 
Mr. Increase Sumner of Berkshire 
County was nominated for lieu- 
tenant-governor. Though it was 
evident the fusion had signally 
failed, and that the vote would be 
a small one, Mr. Wilson accepted 
the nomination. Tlie ticket re- 
ceived little support from persons 
who had acted with tlie Whig 
party, and none from the Whig 
press. The Whigs maintained in- 
tact their organization; and their 
convention, which met soon after- 
ward, adhered to their national or- 
ganization, and still appealed for 
suxjport to the people, though they 
had been so sadly betrayed by their 
Southern allies. 

It became every day more ap- 



48 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



parent that the attempt to unite 
the opponents of the repeal of 
the Missouri prohibition into one 
party liad signally failed in Mas- 
sachusetts. But INIr. Wilson Avas 
among those who believed tliat 
every thing else should be subor- 
dinated to the success of the 
antislavciy cause, and that, to 
advance that cause in Massachu- 
setts, the dominant parties who 
still adhered to their Southern alli- 
ances should be defeated. After 
consulting with other leading Free- 
soilers, he, with several others, re- 
solved to co-operate with a secret 
organization that had existed for a 
few months, and was increasing in 
numbers with great rapidity. Wlien 
the convention of that organization 
assembled in October, it was sti'ong 
in numbers, though none antici- 
pated the wonderful victory 
achieved that year. The Free- 
soilers and Democrats that had 
sent Mr. Sumner and Mr. Rantoul 
to the United-States Senate, and 
made Mr. Boutwell governor, were 
in the majority. After the organi- 
zation of the convention, a motion 
was made to proceed to the nomina- 
tion for governor. Mr. Wilson's 
name was proposed, and received 
with enthusiastic applause. Mr. 
Wilson then rose amid great ex- 
citement, and said, in substance, 
that he had arisen to withdraw 
jteremjjtorily liis name as a candi- 
date, lie had been nominated by 
tlie Republican party, just organ- 
ized, for governor; had accept(.'d 
that nomination, and should sup- 



port the ticket nominated at Wor 
cester ; and could not therefore, in 
honor, accept a nomination, if ten- 
dered, by the convention. Princi- 
ple and sound policy alike forbade. 
For vears he had labored to brins: 
into being a party of freedom. 
Since the passage of the Kansas- 
Nebraska Act, he and other anti- 
slaver}^ men had striven to unite 
the people of Massachusetts in such 
a party. He and they had re- 
peatedly avowed their readiness 
to sacrifice names, organizations, 
themselves, every thing but the 
sacred cause, to unite the people in 
resistance to the slave-power ; but 
their efforts had signally failed. 
He had come to the convention in 
the hope that something would be 
done to break up the Whig and 
Democratic parties of Massachu- 
setts, and elect a senator and rep- 
resentatives to Congress with no 
Southern alliances. To accomplish 
such results lie was ready to make 
any personal sacrifice, and so was 
the great body of the antislavery 
men of the State. Sound policy 
required that the nominees of that 
convention for governor and lieu- 
tenant-governor should be taken 
from the Whig and Democratic 
parties ; and he appealed to his 
personal and political friends to 
cast no votes for him. 

Mr. Wilson gave his vote to the 
Republican State ticket nomi- 
nated at Worcester, but used his 
influence to elect a legislature and 
a delegation in Congress who would 
be true to the policy of freedom. 



LIFE OP HENRY WILSOIST. 



47 



Seven Free-soilers were sent to 
Congress, and with them N. P. 
Banks, who had been a coalition 
Democrat; James Buffinton, who 
had favored Mr. Sumner's election 
to the Senate ; Linus B. Comins, 
who had refused in 1848 to vote 
for Gen. Taylor ; and Robert B. 
Hall, one of the original twelve 
members of the New-England 
Antislavery Society. A legisla- 
ture was elected which Theodore 
Parker declared to be the strongest 
antislavery legislative body that 
.had ever assembled in Massachu- 
setts. It passed an act to protect 
personal liberty, an act against 
excluding from public schools chil- 
dren on account of race or color, 
and adopted an address to the 
governor in favor of removing 
Judge Loring on account of his 
agency in returning to slavery An- 
thony Burns. 

Not less than twenty thousand 
of the twenty-seven thousand Free- 
soil voters in the State went into 
the American organization ; thus 
indorsing Mr. Wilson, and securing 
a preponderating influence in favor 
of liberty. 

The results of the election were 
no less a surprise to Mr. Wilson, 
Mr. Burlingame, and other anti- 
slavery men who had acted in or 
co-operated with the American 
party, than to the people of the 
State. But the victory threw upon 
antislavery men the gravest re- 
sponsibilities. It was clearly their 
duty to use the influence and pow- 
er it gave them for the advance- 



ment of the cause to which they 
were pledged by acts, declared 
opinions, and years of earnest and 
persistent effort. Though the work 
involved grave difficulties, they 
entered upon it with unflagging 
zeal and unfaltering resolution. 

When the legislature assembled, 
it was found that a large majority 
of the House were in favor of 
sending Mr. Wilson to the Senate 
of the United States. To him 
this was a surprise ; for he had felt, 
and had said to his friends, after 
his declination of the nomination 
made by the American Convention, 
that personally he had nothing to 
gain by the election. Before the 
meeting of the legislature, he had 
visited no member, spent no money, 
nor had he asked any one to vote 
for him. But the antislavery men 
were in a majority in the legisla- 
ture, and he received a hundred 
and four majority in the House, 
and one majority in the Senate ; 
though, had a second vote been 
called for, it was known that he 
would have received twenty-seven 
votes from the forty members of 
the latter body. 

When Mr. Wilson arrived at 
Washington, he saw, at a glance, 
that Southern politicians who had 
deserted their Northern associates 
upon the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise were striving to im- 
pose upon the American organiza- 
tion the test of fidelity to the slave- 
power. Flattering words from vet- 
eran statesmen were poured into 
his ears. " Flattering appeals," 



48 



LIFE OF HENRY "WILSON. 



1r' said in a speech at Sijringfiekl, 
" were made to me to aid in the 
work of nationalizing the party ; 
hut I resolved that upon my soul 
the sin and shame of silence or 
submission should never rest. I re- 
turned home, determined to baffle, 
if I could, the meditated treason 
to freedom and to the North." 
During five months succeeding 
the adjournment of Congress, he 
visited thirteen States, travelled 
more than nine thousand miles, 
addressed tens of thousands of 
fieemen, consulted with many 
leading men, and wrote hundreds 
of letters. In his speeches and 
letters he warned antislavery men 
against the purposes of proslavery 
leaders North and South, and ap- 
pealed to antislavery men of all 
parties to unite in one great politi- 
cal organization, based upon a full 
recognition of the equal rights of 
men of every color and race. In 
an address upon the condition of 
the antislavery cause, delivered at 
the Tabernacle in the city of New 
York, he said, " If my voice could 
be heard by the antislavery men 
of all i^arties, I would say to them, 
' Resolve it, write it over your 
door-posts, engrave it on the lids 
of your Bibles, proclaim it at the 
rising of the sun and at the going- 
down of the same, and in the broad 
light of noon, tliat tlic day any 
j»arty — be it Whig, Democratic, 
or American — raises its finj^er 
to arrest the antislavery move- 
ment, to rej)ress antislavery sen- 
timeuts, or proscribe antislavery 



men, it shall surely begin to 
die.' " 

On the 2Gth of May, 1855, ^Ir. 
Wilson addressed the citizens of 
Brattleborough, Vt., on " The Posi- 
tion and Duty of the American Par- 
ty." In this speech he declared it to 
be " the first duty of a public man 
to see to it that he and those with 
whom he acted were right in their 
principles and policies, aims and 
end." " The hour has now come," 
he said, " which is to decide wheth- 
er the American movement is to be 
a liberal, progressive movement, 
American in spirit, principle, and 
policy ; or whether it shall be nar- 
row and intolerant, anti-American 
in spirit, principle, and policy. If 
I comprehend it at all, — its genius 
and spirit, its objects and purj^oses, 
— it simply proposes to correct and 
reform abuses and corruptions, to 
modify and improve the naturali- 
zation laws, and to create a public 
sentiment that shall tend to make 
the distinct races and nationalities 
in America one homogeneous peo- 
ple, — Americans all in sentiment 
and feeling." 

" He had," he said, " no sympa- 
thy wdtli that narrow, bigoted, 
intolerant spiiit that Avould make 
war upon a race of men because 
they happened to be born in other 
lands, — a dastardly spirit, that 
would repel from our shores the 
men who sought homes here under 
our free institutions. Such a spirit 
was anti-American, devilish : he 
loathed it iVom the bottom of his 
heart. 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



49 



" He knew there were men who 
called themselves Americans who 
would abolish the naturalization 
laws altogether ; who would for- 
ever deny the right of suffrage to 
men for the fault of being born out 
of America. He had no sympathy, 
and he hoped the men of Vermont 
had no sympathy, with that class 
of men whose opinions were at war 
with the spirit of American insti- 
tutions and the laws of humanity. 
Such anti- American sentiments had 
brought dishonor upon the Ameri- 
can movement; and, unless they 
received the rebuke of the Ameri- 
can party, they would defeat the 
real reforms contemplated, and 
cover the movement with dis- 
honor. 

" He regretted to say that there 
were some members of the Ameri- 
can party in favor of excluding 
by constitutional amendments all 
adopted citizens from office. He 
deeply deplored the action of the 
legislature of Massachusetts in 
proposing an amendment to the 
Constitution embodying this doc- 
trine. He hoped the gentlemen 
who had given their votes for this 
proposition — a proposition that 
would not permit Prof. Agassiz, 
one of the first living scientific 
men of the age, to fill, under State 
appointment, an office even of a 
scientific character — would see 
their error, and retreat at once 
from a position justice, reason, and 
religion condemned. What little 
influence he possessed would be 
given with a hearty good-will to 



defeat that proposition. He had 
no sympathy whatever with the 
spirit that would send out of the 
country the sons and daughters of 
misfortune, who, by the storms 
of life, were thrown upon us for 
support. Whenever the authorities 
of the Old World sent their poor 
here to be relieved themselves of 
their support, he would promptly 
redress the imposition : such an 
abuse ought to be immediately cor- 
rected. But when a poor man 
lands upon our soil, and, by the 
misfortunes of life, is thrown upon 
the public charity for support, he 
would as soon send a poor, fleeing 
bondman back to the land 

' Where the cant of democracy dwells on 
the lips 
Of the forgers of fetters, and wielders of 
whips,' 

as to banish such a man from the 
land he has sought. There is a 
kind of native Americanism far 
more alien to America than are the 
adopted sons of the Old World it 
would degrade into servile races. 
True, genuine Americanism re- 
bukes bigotry, intolerance, and pro- 
scription ; reforms abuses ; adopts 
a wise, humane, and Christian pol- 
icy towards all men, — a policy con- 
sistent with the idea that ' all men 
are created equal.' 

" If the American party is to 
achieve any thing for good, it must 
adopt a wise and humane policy 
consistent with our democratic 
ideas, — a policy which will reform 
existing abuses, and guard against 



50 



LIFE OF HENRY "WILSON". 



future out's ; which shall com- 
bine iu one harmonious organiza- 
tion moderate and patriotic men 
who love freedom and hate oppres- 
sion. 

'• Upon the grand and over- 
shadowing question of American 
slavery the American party must 
take its position. If it wishes a 
speedy death and a dishonored 
grave, let it adopt the policy of 
neutrality upon that question, or 
the policy of ignoring that ques- 
tion. If that party wishes to live, 
to impress its policy upon the 
nation, it must repudiate the sec- 
tional policy of slavery, and stand 
upon the broad and national basis 
of freedom. It must boldly accept 
the position that ' freedom is na- 
tional, and slavery is sectional.' 
It must stand upon the national 
idea embodied in the Declaration 
of Independence, that ' all men 
are created equal, and have an 
inalienable right to life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness.' It 
must accept these words as em- 
Ijracing the great central, national 
idea of America, iidelity to Avhich 
is national in New England and in 
South Carolina. It must recog- 
nize the doctrine, that the Consti- 
tution of the United States was 

made ' TO SECURE THE BLESSINGS 
OF LiiucRTY ; ' that Congress has 
no rigiit to make a slave, or allow 
slavery to exist outside of the 
slave States ; and that the Federal 
Crovernment must Ije relieved from 
all connection with and responsi- 
i»ility for slavery." 



Referring to the brilliant vic- 
tories that had been achieved in 
New England, the Great West, 
Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, by 
the union of ant isla very men, 
Whigs, and anti-Nebraska Demo- 
crats, he spoke in condemnation of 
those, especially in New York, who 
maintained that Americans should 
occupy a neutral position on the 
slavery question ; and he expressed 
his gratification at their defeat. 

These views brought upon Mr. 
Wilson sharp criticisms and bitter 
denunciations. This feeling was 
specially manifested in the National 
Council, which assembled in Phil- 
adelphia early in June. The men 
who were striving to make the 
American party proslaver}^ pro- 
scriptive, and intolerant, denounced 
him as an abolitionist and a dis- 
organizer. During several days, 
the council was convulsed, rent, 
and torn by the issues touching 
slavery. 

The leadership of the antislavery 
men was, by common consent of 
friend and foe, accorded to Mr. 
Wilson. " Gen. Wilson was," said 
'' The Springfield Ilepublican," 
" not only the leading delegate of 
Massachusetts, but of the free 
States, at the late Pliiladelphia 
National Council. No man exer- 
cised so great an influence in that 
body. He was the master-spirit 
of the North; and but for his 
energy and industry, moderation 
in demand, and firmness in main- 
tenance, combined with his par- 
liamentary ability on the floor of 



LIFE OF HENRY "WTLSON". 



51 



the council, the result on the part 
of the free States must have been 
less creditable to themselves and 
their delegates. 

" It is but simple justice to say 
that he was the hero of the con- 
test. This merit, we believe, will 
be awarded to him by the delegates 
of both the North and South, who 
felt the force of his labors either 
for or against their convictions. It 
is true. Gen. Wilson did no more 
than his duty, considering his posi- 
tion and the State he represented. 
But this could have been truly said 
had he done less. Duty is relative, 
and not always measurable ; and 
where so many were weak and 
faithless, where defection was rife, 
and treason not wanting, he who 
gave his whole energy, his whole 
thought, and almost his whole time, 
sacrificing rest, and even sleep, to 
encouraging the timid, convincing 
the doubtful, stiffening the falter- 
ing, and marshalling all up to the 
true expectation of the North, 
at the same time that he defied the 
personal and political assaults of 
hot-headed Southerners, and with 
earnest eloquence proudly spoke 
the purposes and pretensions of 
freedom, and warred with resist- 
less denunciation and sarcasm the 
ranks of the doughfaces, — even 
if this were only duty, it is a 
performance of duty worthy of 
distinguished credit and high en- 
comium. He received it there from 
all his associates, while he chal- 
lenged the admiration and respect 
of the generous and high-minded 



of those who opposed his con- 
clusions and resisted his energetic 
assaults." 

The committee, by a vote of 
seventeen to fourteen, reported in 
favor of abiding by and maintain- 
ing the existing laws upon the 
subject of slavery as a final and 
conclusive settlement. It report- 
ed against any legislation prohib- 
iting slavery in the Territories, or 
abolishing it in the District of 
Columbia. 

Mr. Wilson took the lead in 
resistance to the adoption of that 
illiberal, proslavery, and intolerant 
platform. " The adoption of the 
platform," he said, " commits the 
American party unconditionally to 
the policy of slavery, to the iron 
dominion of the black power. I 
tell you, sir, I tell this convention, 
that we Cannot stand upon this 
platform in a single free State of 
the North. The people of the 
North will repudiate it, spurn it, 
spit upon it. For myself, sir, I 
here and now tell you to your 
faces, that I will trample with dis- 
dain on your platform. I will not 
support it : I will support no man 
who stands upon it. Adopt that 
platform, and you array against 
you every thing that is pure and 
holy, every thing that has the 
elements of permanency in it, the 
noblest pulsations of the human 
heart, the holiest convictions of 
the human soul, the profoundest 
ideas of the human intellect, and 
the attributes of Almighty God. 
Your party will be withered and 



52 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



consumed by the blasting breath 
of the people's wrath. There is 
an old S[)anish proverb, whieh says 
that ' the feet of the avenging 
deities are shod with wool.' Soft- 
ly and silently these avenging 
deities are advancing upon you. 
You will find that ' the mills of 
God grind slowl}' ; ' but they grind 
to powder. 

" Of a hundred and forty-two 
representatives of the fi'ee States 
of the North, a hundred and twen- 
ty, elected by more than three hun- 
di'ed thousand majority, are pledged 
against the Kansas - Nebraska in- 
iquity. Your platform requires 
these representatives to violate 
their pledges to the people, to 
smother their own holiest con- 
victions, to abandon your party, 
or resign their seats. Do you, 
sir, believe these representatives 
will obey 3"0ur unholy decrees ? 
Do you believe they will betray 
a free and generous people at 
your bidding ? I tell you nay. 
They will trample with disdain 
upon your platform. They will 
spurn it, and spurn you. The 
people will sustain them, and 
trample your platform and you in 
the dust. 

" Su-, the gentleman from Ala- 
bama (Judge Hopkins) takes ex- 
ception to the declaration made 
by me the other day in reply to 
the gentleman from Vuginia (Mr. 
Boiling), that ' the past was yours, 
tlie future ours.' He objects, 
he tells us, to my assuming the 
functions of a prfjphet. Sir, I 



make little pretensions to the gift 
of prophecy ; but it requires but 
a slight knowledge of the aspects 
of the slavery question in America 
to pronounce the opinion, that the 
past of the republic belongs to 
slavery, the future to freedom. 
Perhaps the distinguished gentle- 
man from Alabama believes that 
we of the North are mere con- 
quered provinces ; that the people 
will obe}- 3'our decrees, and ' con- 
quer their prejudices.' One year 
ago, when the slave propagandists 
proposed to repeal so much of the 
act of the 6th of March, 1820, as 
prohibited slavery in the vast ter- 
ritory lying in the heart of the 
continent, these slave propagand- 
ists laughed to scorn the pre- 
dictions of the friends of freedom, 
that the repeal would meet the 
stern resistance of the people of 
the North. The haughty chiefs 
of the black power and the ad- 
ministration, and its Northern tools 
in Congress, have gone down before 
the stormy wrath of the people. 
The predictions made by us in the 
spring of 1854 are now historical 
deeds, ' consummated facts.' So 
it will be now. The deed you are 
about to perform will seal your 
doom forever. 

" The antislavery sentiment of 
the North is a profound religious 
conviction, rasting upon the com- 
mands of Almighty (rod to ' do 
unto others as we would iliat others 
should do unto us ; ' to *• love our 
neighbors as we love ourselves;' 
to ' uudu the heavy burdens, and to 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



53 



let the oppressed go free.' Do you 
think that the descendants of the 
old sturdy Puritan race, that met 
the demands of priests, nobles, and 
kings, with the stern ' Thus saith 
the Lord,' will smother the holiest 
convictions of their souls, and obey 
the decrees of a body of men like 
this ? I tell you, sir, that they 
will do so never." 

Declaring himself in favor of 
relieving the Federal Government 
from all connection with and 
responsibility for slavery by its 
abolition in the District of Colum- 
bia, its prohibition in the Terri- 
tories, and by the repeal of the 
Fugitive-slave Act, Mr. Wilson 
said, — 

" Standing by Williams's slave-pen 
nineteen years ago, and gazing upon 
men, women, and children collected 
for the Southern markets, I pledged 
myself to liberty; and have never, in 
public or private, at home or abroad, 
spoken or written one word inconsist- 
ent with that pledge, and I never will 
do so to save any party at the com- 
mand of any body of men on earth. 
When I united with the American 
organization in its hour of weakness, I 
told the men with whom I acted that my 
antislavery opinions were the matured 
convictions of years, and that I would 
modify or qualify my opinions or 
suppress my sentiments for no consid- 
eration on earth. From that hour to 
this, in public and in private, I have 
freely uttered my antislavery senti- 
ments, and labored to promote the 
antislavery cause ; and I tell you now, 
that I will continue to do so. You 
shall not proscribe antislavery prin- 



ciples, measures, or men, without re- 
ceiving from me the most determined 
and unrelenting hostility. It is a 
painful thing to differ from our asso- 
ciates and friends ; but when duty, a 
stern sense of duty, demands it, I shall 
do so. 

"Reject this majority platform; 
adopt the proposition to restore free- 
dom to Kansas and Nebraska, and to 
protect the actual settlers from violence 
and outrage ; simplify your rules ; 
make an open organization ; banish 
all bigotry and intolerance from your 
ranks ; place your movement in har- 
mony with the humane progressive 
spirit of the age, — and you may win 
and retain power, and elevate and im- 
prove the political character of the 
country. Adopt this majority plat- 
form, commit the American move- 
ment to the slave perpetualists and the 
slave propagandists, and you will go 
down before the burning indignation 
and withering scorn of American free- 
men." 

As usual in national conventions, 
the slave-power triumphed ; and 
most of the Northern delegates left 
the council, and issued an address 
repudiating its action, and severing 
their connection with it. 

Returning to Massachusetts, the 
delegates made a report to the 
State Council that had been called. 
Mr. Wilson and his associates 
urged that measures should be 
immediately taken to secure the 
united action of men of all par- 
ties who thought and felt alike 
upon the vital issues growing out 
of the aggressive policy of the 
slave-power. Here was another 



54 



LIFE OP HENRY "WILSON. 



grand opportunity for unity and a 
combined opposition against the 
slave-masters ; but it was fatally 
thrown awa}'. The proposition to 
call a convention to organize such 
a party was rejected ; and the high- 
raised expectation of the friends of 
liberty was again doomed to dis- 
appointment. 

" I retired from that meeting," 
said Mr. Wilson, " with a sad 
heart, but with an unconquered 
soul." He continued to labor for 
unity of sentiment and action, and 
personally visited many leading 
"Whigs, appealing to them to seize 
the occasion, to take the lead, in 
combining the people in one great 
party pledged to the policy of 
freedom. In a letter to Wendell 
Phillips, who had invited him to 
join in celebrating the anniversary 
of national independence at Fra- 
mingham with the abolitionists, he 
wrote, — 

*' I liope that we shall all strive to 
unite and combine all the friends of 
freedom ; tliat we shall forget each 
other's faults and shortcomings in the 
past, and all labor to secure that co- 
operation by which alone the slave is 
to be emancipated, and the domination 
of his master broken. Let us remem- 
ber that more than three millions of 
bondmen, groaning under nameless 
woes, demand that we shall cease to 
reproach each other, and that we labor 
for their deliverance. To them that 
hallowed anniversary brings no ray 
of consolation, no beam of hope. 
To them the golden lustre of the 
6un illumes not their dark hori- 



zon. To them the golden thread of 
freedom is lost on earth. Let your 
friends, let all the friends of these 
wronged millions, strive to combine 
their efforts in practicable action for 
the advancement of the cause of the 
bondmen." 

In July he visited the West, ad- 
dressed the friends of liberty at Cin- 
cinnati, and a mass State conven- 
tion in Indianapolis on the anniver- 
sary of the ordinance of 1787. In 
his speech at Indianapolis, which 
was received with strong expres- 
sions of gratification by the assem- 
bled thousands, he urged antisla- 
very men, Americans, Whigs, and 
anti-Nebraska Democrats, to unite 
upon a common platform against 
the aggressions of slavery. As an 
antislavery man, he believed that 
the curse of God would rest on him 
if he did not strive to get men 
on such a platform. Referring to 
the American party, he said, that, 
as he understood it, it had wise 
and beneficent purposes in view. 
It Avas consistent with republi- 
canism, with law, and with Chris- 
tianity. " I loathe," he said, " the 
idea of opposition to foreigners as 
foreigners." 

Returning to Massachusetts, Mr. 
Wilson attended the State Council 
that met at Springfield on the 7th 
of August. The committee on 
resolutions reported a proposition 
that the exigencies of the times re- 
quired united political action, ex- 
pressed a readiness to co-oj)erate 
with others, and proposed the ap- 
pointment of a connnittee, which. 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



55 



in conjunction with other commit- 
tees, should call a State conven- 
tion to nominate candidates to be 
supported at the ensuing election. 
But this proposition was sternly 
resisted ; and a motion was made 
to strike out the words " to co- 
operate with," and insert the words 
" to invite the co-operation of." 
Mr. Wilson opposed this amend- 
ment, and advocated the original 
proposition in an elaborate speech. 

" Sir," he said, " this amendment is 
ungenerous, unmanly, and unworthy 
of earnest, high-minded men. Let us 
who are in the majority be liberal and 
generous ; let us meet the men of other 
organizations at least half-way ; and let 
us extend the grasp of hands warm 
with the blood which courses through 
generous and manly hearts. 

"I believe, Mr. President, that an 
immense majority of the people of Mas- 
sachusetts are this day hungering and 
thirsting after that political union that 
shall bring together men whose hearts 
beat responsive to the tones of free- 
dom. Sir, the instinctive sagacity of 
the people, wiser than the wisdom 
of political leaders, sees that by fusion 
alone can the people of the free 
States baffle the darling schemes of the 
chiefs of the black power. If fusion 
is defeated in Massachusetts, in the 
North, it will not be the work of the 
unselfish masses ; but it will be owing 
to the selfish ambition and the crimi- 
nal folly of political leaders. I warn 
the political chiefs of all parties against 
permitting their little petty interests, 
their unreasoning prejudices, to blind 
them to the great fact that the peo- 
ple want union, and will have it 



tlirough your organizations, or over 
your organizations. 

"If the representatives of the Amer- 
ican party reject this proposition for 
fusion, I shall go home once more 
with a sad heart. But I shall not go 
liome to sulk in my tent, to rail and 
fret at the folly of men : I shall go 
home, sir, with a resolved spirit and 
iron will, determined to hope on and 
to struggle on until I see the lovers 
of universal and impartial freedom 
banded together in one organization, 
moved by one impulse. For seven years 
I have labored to break up old organi- 
zations and to make new combina- 
tions, all tending to the organization 
of that great party of the future 
which is to relieve the government 
from the iron dominion of the black 
power. 

"Sir, gentlemen may defeat this 
proposed fusion here to-day ; but they 
cannot control the action of the people. 
A fusion movement will be made under 
the lead of gentlemen of the Whig, 
Democratic, and Free-soil parties, of 
talents and character. The movement 
will be in harmony with the people's 
movements in the North. Sir, such a 
movement will put a majority of the 
men who voted with you last autumn 
in a false position before the country, 
or drive them from your ranks. I 
cannot speak for others : but I tell you 
franldy, that I cannot be placed in a 
false position ; I cannot, even for one 
moment, consent to stand arraj^ed 
against the hosts of freedom now pre- 
paring for the contest of 1856. I tell 
you frankly, that, whenever I see a 
formation in position to strike effective 
blows for freedom, I shall be with it 
in the conflict; whenever I see an 
organization in position antagonistic 



56 



LIFE OP HENRY WILSON. 



to freedom, my arm shall aid in smit- 
ing it down. While I shall be true to 
freedom. I shall not be false to the 
ideas which underlie the American 
movement. All my hopes for free- 
dom, all my hopes for the triumph 
of those American ideas, are based 
wholly upon the united action of the 
people. 

'• These avowals are not inconsistent 
with my past avowals and acts. Nev- 
er, since I became a member of the 
American organization, have I failed 
to utter my sentiments frankly in pub- 
lic and in private. By the unsolicited 
kindness of my friends, I have been 
assigned a position in the national 
councils. I say, unsolicited kindness : 
for, whatever might have been my de- 
sires or hopes, I never asked a single 
human being to vote for me; I never 
travelled a single mile or expended a 
single dollar to secure a vote. I see 
an eloquent gentleman present, who 
called upon me, while my election 
was pending, to request me to write 
something to modify my opinions upon 
slavery. He will remember that I 
stated fully my views upon that ques- 
tion ; that I told him my opinions 
were the matured convictions of years ; 
that I would not qualify them to win 
the loftiest position on earth ; that I 
should carry them with me, if elected, 
into the Senate ; and that, if the party 
with which I acted 2>roved recreant to 
freedom, I would shiver it to atoms, 
if I had the power to do it. Chosen to 
represent Massachusetts in the na- 
tional councils without the sacrifice 
of my antislavery opinions, I have 
acted, and I shall continue to act, up 
to these opinions." 

The proposition had been made 



in the legislature to amend the 
Constitution by requiring a foreign- 
er to reside in the country twenty- 
one years before he should be 
qualified to vote. To all attempts 
to sauction that proposition, and 
all other illiberal measures, Mr. 
Wilson gave a firm and persistent 
opposition. 

" Sir," he said, "the American move- 
ment is not based upon bigotry, intol- 
erance, or proscription. If there is 
any thing of bigotry, intolerance, or 
proscription, in the American move- 
ment, if there is any disposition to 
oppress or degrade the Briton, the 
Scot, the Celt, the German, or any one 
of another clime or race, or to deny to 
them the fullest protection of just and 
equal laws, it is time such criminal 
fanaticism was sternly rebuked by the 
intelligent patriotism of the state and 
country. I deeply deplore, sir, the 
adoption of the twenty-one-years 
amendment. It will weaken the Amer- 
ican movement at home and in other 
States, especially in the West, and tend 
to defeat any modification whatever of 
the naturalization laws. I warn gen- 
tlemen who desire the correction of 
the evils growing out of the abuses of 
the naturalization laws against the 
adoption of extreme opinions. I tell 
you, gentlemen of the council, that this 
intense Nativism kills ; yes, sir, it 
kills and is killing us, and, unless it is 
speedily abandoned, will defeat all the 
needed reforms the movement was in- 
augurated to secure, and overwhelm 
us all in dishonor. Every attempt, by 
whomsoever made, to interpolate with 
the American movement any thing 
inconsistent with the theory of our 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



57 



democratic institutions, any thing in- 
consistent with the idea that ' all men 
are created equal,' any thing con- 
trary to the command of God's holy 
Word, that ' the stranger that dwell- 
eth with you shall be unto you as one 
born among you, and thou shalt love 
him as thyself,' is doing that which 
will baffle the wise policy which strives 
to reform existing evils and to guard 
against future abuses." 

All efforts for fusion proving un- 
availing, Mr. Wilson united with 
others in calling a mass convention, 
which assembled at Worcester, ef- 
fected a union, and nominated 
Julius Rockwell for governor. He 
entered into the canvass with ear- 
nestness, and labored zealously in 
behalf of the nomination thus 
effected. 

Although the attempts to ex- 
clude foreigners from holding office, 
and to require a residence of twen- 
ty-one years before voting, had 
failed, a proposition was carried 
through the legislature, and sub- 
mitted to the people in May, 1859, 
requiring a residence of two years 
after naturalization. Mr. Wilson, 
who had opposed the other propo- 
sitions, opposed this also, because 
it made " an invidious and offen- 
sive distinction against men who 
were born in other lands." To 
aid in its defeat, he presided at a 
public meeting in Faneuil Hall, 
which was addressed by the emi- 
nent German orator, Carl Schurz. 
On the 20th of April he addressed 
a letter to the Hon. Francis Gil- 
lette of Connecticut in opposition 



to the measvire, in which he wrote 
as follows : — 

" That there are great abuses grow- 
ing out of the loose administration of 
the naturalization laws, especially in 
our large Atlantic cities and towns, all 
fair-minded men must admit. It has 
appeared to me that these admitted 
abuses could be remedied either by the 
modification or revision of tlie natural- 
ization laws, or by a reform in their 
administration ; and I have ever been 
ready in any practical mode consistent 
with the equal rights of all men to 
reform these acknowledged evils. But 
I have ever declared that I would sup- 
port no measure, even to reform these 
abuses, which would in the slightest 
degrade any man, or class of men ; 
that I would give to every human 
being equal rights, — the same equality 
I would claim for myself or my own 
son. 

" Ko power on earth could force me 
to vote for any proposition which fair- 
minded and intelligent men felt to 
be unequal or personally degrading. 
Never have I supported any measure 
inconsistent with the equal rights of 
man ; but, if I had ever unintentionally 
made such a mistake, I have nothing 
of that pride of consistency in regard 
to mere measures which would induce 
me to continue in the wrong because I 
had been wrong once. Better be right 
in the lights of to-day than be con- 
sistent with the errors of yesterday. 

"For more than twenty years, I 
have believed the antislavery cause to 
be the great cause of our age in Amer- 
ica, — a cause which overshadowed all 
other issues, state or national, foreign 
or domestic. In my political action I 
have ever endeavored to make it the 



58 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON, 



paranumnt question, and to suliordi- 
nate all minor issues to this one grand 
and comprehensive idea. It seems to 
me that the friends of a cause so vast, 
so sacred, should ever strive to save it 
from being burdened by the pressure 
of temporary interests and local and 
comparatively immaterial questions. 
With my comprehension of the tran- 
scendent magnitude of the issues in- 
volved in the solution of the slavery 
question in America, with the lights I 
have to guide my action, I should feel, 
if I put a burden on the antislavery 
cause by pressing the adoption of 
measures of minor importance, that I 
was committing a crime ' against mil- 
lions of hapless bondmen, and should 
deserve their lasting reproaches, and 
the rebuke of all true and tried men 
who were toiling to dethrone that 
gigantic power which perverts the Na- 
tional Government to the interests of 
oppression." 

This letter evoked a public re- 
ply from Hon. Amasa Walker, 
sharply criticising Mr. Wilson's 
opposition to the amendment. Un- 
der date of 2d of May, Mr. Wilson 
answered this letter, justifying his 
opposition, and vindicating the con- 
sistency of his action. In this let- 
ter he said, — 

" I avowed at all times, while acting 
with the American organization, my 
readiness to remedy abuses growing out 
of the administration of naturalization 
laws by their revision ; but I at all 
times announced my determination to 
vote for no proposition which would be 
unequal, unjust, or degrading, to any 
class of men. 



"■ This was my position then : it is 
my position now. Then it required 
me to oppose, and I did oppose, the 
twenty-one-years proposition, the four- 
tecn-3'ears proposition, the proposi- 
tion to make foreign-born citizens 
ineligible to office, the sending-out 
of the country men for the misfortune 
of poverty, and the reading-and-writ- 
ing amendment : now it requires me 
to oppose the adoption of a proposition 
which simply makes a distinction be- 
tween adopted and native-born citizens 
of the United States by requiring the 
adopted citizen to reside in the United 
States two years before he can exercise 
the right of suffrage, while it allows 
the native-born citizen to exercise that 
right after a residence of one year. I 
believe that the opinions of Republi- 
cans outside of Massachusetts upon this 
proposition approach unanimity. Dur- 
ing the past five years, I have had 
some little opportunity to become ac- 
quainted with the pubUc men of the 
Republican party from all sections of 
the country. I have, during those 
years, travelled in seventeen States, 
more than forty thousand miles, seen 
and counselled with the active men of 
the party, and addressed hundreds of 
thousands of the people. Few men 
have had better opportunities to be- 
come acquainted with leading men, and 
to know something of the opinions of 
the people ; and I now say that I do not 
know a single Republican statesman, 
or a single Republican paper, or a 
single man in the rank and file of the 
Republican party, outside of Massa- 
chusetts, in favor of the adoption of 
this amendment." 

Mr. Wilson was severely cen- 
sured and sharply denounced for 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



m 



liis opposition to this measure, 
these imputations he said, — 



To 



"I have no reply to make. Con- 
scious that I have nothing personally 
to gain by these avowals of my opin- 
ions upon this question, and that I am 
actuated solely by a sincere desire to 
maintain the equal rights of American 
citizens, and to advance a cause my 
heart loves and my judgment ap- 
proves, I am content to appeal from 
the impulsive censure of the pres- 



ent to the sober judgment of the fu- 
ture." 

As Mr. Walker predicted in his 
letter, the people of Massachu- 
setts ratified the two-j^ears amend- 
ment by a decisive majority. It, 
however, remained in the Consti- 
tution but a brief period, and was 
stricken therefrom immediately 
after the opening of the Rebellion ; 
thus giving the popular indorse- 
ment to Mr. AVilson's position. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Thirty-third Congress. — Entrance into United-States Senate. — Douglas takes a Hand in a 
Small Game. — Benjamin F. Hallett to the Rescue on a Question of Veracity. 



ON the tenth day of February, 
1855, Henry Wilson the 
shoemaker took his seat in the Sen- 
ate of the United States as the suc- 
cessor of Edward Everett the 
professor and diplomat, whose 
scholarship and oratory were of 
the highest order, and whose fame 
the State of Massachusetts had ap- 
propriated and lovingly cherished 
as part of her own. The differ- 
rence between the new and the 
retiring senator, in opportunity, 
education, style of thought and 
expression, and in general politi- 
cal aims and principles, was one 
calculated to excite remark ; and 
if among the scholars who adorn 
the classic precincts of Cambridge 
and Boston, or among the pro- 
found and learned jurists that 



grace the supreme bench of the 
State, there were those who had 
misgivings as to the propriety of 
the change, it is not matter for 
wonder. Mr. Everett was a man 
of highly-polished manners, great 
talents, and varied acquirements : 
but by some unaccountable mental 
eccentricity, or from his inclina- 
tion to follow rather than lead in 
the political movements of the 
time, he had not kept even with 
the sentiment of the people of the 
State, and no longer represented 
their ideas on great questions that 
were impending ; while Henry 
Wilson did represent those ideas. 
The question of propriety has since 
been settled by Wilson himself ; 
and Mr. Everett, when he subse- 
quently put himself in political 



60 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



accord with his successor, not onlj'^ 
indorsed the propriety of the shoe- 
nuiker's election, but did an act 
which counted more in saving liis 
political re})utation than any one 
act of his whole career. Mr. Wil- 
son, it is true, was not so polished 
in manners and scholarship as 
Everett ; few are : but neither 
was he deficient in material sena- 
torial qualities. AVhen Wilson 
entered the Senate, though Web- 
ster, Cla}', and Calhoun were no 
longer there, it was still, as it is to- 
day, a body of great and distin- 
guished men. John M. Clayton, 
Lewis Cass, Stephen A. Douglas, 
William H. Seward, Hannibal Ham- 
lin, Charles Sumner, Hamilton 
Fish, Salmon P. Chase, Mason, 
Slidell, Hunter, and others, were 
among the men who were there, and 
in the prime of their powers and 
their fame. There was serious 
work near at hand, as was felt, but 
iVir more serious as it turned out. 
Franklin Pierce was president, 
Jeff. Davis in the cabinet, the Kan- 
sas question on their hands, and 
the whole administration, and all 
its ideas, sympathies, and devices, 
utterl}'^ at war with the spirit of 
the age, and utterly incompetent 
to the exigencies of the hour. It 
was the time for men like Wilson ; 
only there were not enough of 
them. There were good men 
there to make thrilling sj^eeches 
on the right side, lint Wil>i)ii was 
more than a speech-makci' : he was 
an orgaiiizci' and a woikcr, — a man 
who could biiiig things to pass. 



On the 21st of the month he 
made his dchut as a debater by a 
short speech announcing his inten- 
tion to vote for measures proposing 
to reduce duties on imported 
articles which enter largely into 
the consumption of the masses. 

Two days after, Feb. 23, the 
real career of Mr. Wilson as a 
senator of the United States was 
fairly commenced by a speech 
characteristic of the man, and 
which excited general attention, 
and, in certain quarters, a decided 
flutter. The occasion of the flut- 
ter was the introduction to notice 
of some resolutions on the slavery 
question, written by ]\Ir. Hallett of 
Boston, and passed by the Demo- 
cratic Convention Sept. 19, 1849. 
These resolutions were written for 
the local market of the State of 
Massachusetts, and not for national 
consumption, and they were fla- 
vored with sentiments on the sla- 
ver}- question that had become con- 
traband . and incendiary in Demo- 
cratic circles in 1855. The first 
was in favor of " freedom and free 
soil wherever man lives throughout 
God's heritage ; " and two of the 
others affirmed that slavery could 
not exist in the Territories without 
the sanction of Congress, — a doc- 
trine which recent discoveries in 
political science had proved falla- 
cious, and distasteful at Washing- 
ton. Mr. Hallett being chairman 
of llie National Democratic Com- 
mittee at the time these resolutions 
were written, a great constitutional 
lawver, and a high Democratic au- 



LIFE OF HENEY WILSON. 



61 



thority, their promulgation in the 
Senate with a full indorsement of 
soundness by the abolition agita- 
tor, Wilson, rendered the situation 
interesting. 

Mr. Douglas was the first to 
comprehend the fatal tendenc}'' of 
the thrust Wilson had made at the 
vital point, and endeavored to break 
its force by insinuating that Wilson 
was a disunionist ; that he had a 
letter written in Boston praising 
him, and asserting, that, upon the 
question of the dissolution of the 
Union, " he would prove himself a 
man." It was understood general- 
ly, that, when Stephen A. Douglas 
took any one in hand, there was 
occasion for it ; and at such times 
the fur might be expected to fly in 
considerable quantities. In fact, 
Douglas was a power that many 
senators preferred to give a wide 
berth to ; and a new-comer like 
Wilson, whom it was important to 
the dominant party to have crushed 
early, might naturall}^ expect a 
demonstration from him to mean 
business. It was a time to try the 
courage, temper, and self-poise of 
any man ; and the reply made on 
the instant was not only pertinent, 
but so manly and pointed, that Mr. 
Douglas was constrained to drop 
the subject, and watch for a more 
valuable place to make his attack. 
Wilson said, — 

" All I have to say is, that I never 
uttered a word in my life to warrant 
such an assertion. Sir, I make no 
pretensions to any peculiar devotion to 



the Union over other men ; but, if 
I know myself, I would sacrifice all 
of life and of hope to maintain and 
perpetuate the union of these States. 
From boyhood I have dreamed of a 
glorious destiny for my country. I 
have wished to see the flag of the 
Union wave in peaceful triumph over 
the North- American continent, over a 
confederacy of free commonwealths. 
I have so much faith in democratic 
ideas, so much confidence in the peo- 
ple, that I have no fears from the an- 
nexation of territory and the extension 
of the boundaries of the republic. 

" The senator from Illinois (Mr. 
Douglas) has undertaken here to-night 
to denounce all of us of the North, 
whom he is pleased to call abolitionists, 
as disunionists. Now, sir, in my judg- 
ment, no part of the confederacy is 
more devoted to the Union than the 
State I have the honor, in part, to rep- 
resent. I believe, that, in my State, 
the opinion in favor of the Union 
approaches unanimity. We respond 
with all our hearts to the words of 
Daniel Webster uttered on this floor 
more than twenty years ago, '■Liberty 
and union now and foreoer, one and 
inseparable.'' But we mean liberty 
and union. The voting antislavery 
men of Massachusetts will not be 
frightened from their advocacy of im- 
partial liberty by threats, made here 
or elsewhere, to dissolve the Union. 
These menaces have no terrors for us. 
We know that the people will stand 
by the Union even if slavery should 
be abolished. . . . 

" Now, sir, I assure the senators from 
the South that we of the free States 
mean to change our policy. I tell you 
frankly just how we feel, and just what 
we propose to do. We mean to with- 



62 



LIFE OF HENEY WILSoN. 



draw frum tliet^e luxUt; tliat class of public 
mcu who have betrayed us aud deceived 
you ; men who have misrepresented us, 
and not dealt frankly with you. And 
we intend to send men into these halls 
wlio will truly represent us, and deal 
justly with you. We mean, sir, to 
place in the councils of the nation 
men who, in the words of Jefterson, 
' have sworn on the altar of God eter- 
nal hostility'- to every kind of o])pres- 
sion of the mind and body of man.' 
Yes, sir, we mean to place in the na- 
tional councils men who cannot be 
seduced by the blandishments, or de- 
terred by the threats, of power; men 
who will fearlessly maintain our prin- 
ciples. I assure senators from the 
South that the people of the North 
entertain for them aud their people no 
feelings of hostility ; but they widl no 
longer consent to be misrejn-esented by 
their own representatives, nor pro- 
scribed for their fidelity to freedom. 
This determination of the people of 
the Xorth has manifested itself during 
the past few^ months in acts not to be 
misread by the country. The stem 
rebuke administered to faithless North- 
ern representatives, and the annihila- 
tion of old and powerful political 
organizations, should teach senators 
that the days of waning jiower are 
upon them. This action of the people 
teaches the lesson, which I hope will 
be heeded, that political combinations 
can no longer be successfully made to 
suppress the sentiments of the peoi)le." 

'I'll is style of language and 
thought was decidedly intere.sting 
to tlie Senate as then constituted ; 
and tlie meml^ers sonieliow found 
lliemselves listening, and taking 



notes. Mr. Benjamin of Louisiana, 
an able lawyer and sharp fencer, 
rose, and acknowledged tliat the 
remarks of the new senator from 
Massachusetts were interesting, and 
desired to put a few questions, the 
pith of which was, whether Massa- 
chusetts would return fugitive 
slaves if the fugitive -slave act 
was repealed. Wilson promptly 
replied, that she would perform 
all her constitutional obligations, 
in his opinion. Then Mr. Rusk of 
Texas went at him, and Weller of 
California. But it was all of no 
use : he resolutely refused to get 
confused, or thrown from his bal- 
ance ; and finished his speech with- 
out sustaining damage, or perilling 
the reputation of his State. 

This speech attracted so much 
attention, and the speaker escaped 
the claws of Douglas, Benjamin, 
Rusk, and Co. so absolutely without 
injury, that it was thought neces- 
sary to have something done about 
it ; and, after an entire 3'ear of 
consideration, it was decided, that, 
if they could not squelch him in 
any other way, they might attempt 
to prove him a liar. Accordingly, 
Mr. Hallett carefully concocted a 
nice little pamphlet, raising against 
him a question of veracity ; and it 
was printed in due form, and placed 
upon the tables of senators, with 
all j)roper authentication, and as- 
sumption of responsibility. 

It is diliicidt now to understand 
the motives of Mr. Ilallett in 
arraying himself against Henry 
Wilson on such a question and in 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



G3 



sach a way ; for Mr. Hallett was 
not a fool, had generous instincts, 
and knew the man he assailed. In 
such an encounter there could be 
but one result, and that the reader 
will anticipate. Mr. Wilson said, — 

" There has been placed, Mr. Presi- 
dent, upon the desks of members of 
the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives, a pamphlet prepared by the au- 
thor of these resolutions (Mr. Benja- 
min F. Hallett), now the United-States 
District Attorney for Massachusetts. 
Upon the titlepage of this pamphlet 
I find, in huge, staring capitals, these 
words : — 

" ' A Question of Veracity for Sena- 
tor Henry Wilson ! ' Sir, this pam- 
phlet, with this ' question of veracity for 
Henry Wilson ' in large capitals upon 
its titlepage, is made up of extracts from 
a speech delivered by this government 
official at an administration meeting 
in Wilton, N.H., pending the late elec- 
tion. In this speech Mr. Benjamin F. 
Hallett has made a gross, wanton, and 
wholly unprovoked personal assault 
upon me. I say, sir, this assault is 
wholly unprovoked ; for I have not, in 
the Senate or out of the Senate, in 
referring to or quoting from these 
resolutions, charged him with incon- 
sistency, or uttered an unkind or dis- 
respectful word towards him. 

"But, sir, Mr. Benjamin F. Hallett 
has chosen to make this gratuitous per- 
sonal assault upon me, and to thrust it 
into this chamber and into the other 
house. Sir, I shall promptly meet 
this assault. Mr. Benjamin F. Hal- 
lett raises 'a question of veracity for 
Senator Henry Wilson.' ' Senator 
Henry Wilson' here on the floor of 



the Senate, on this the twenty-first 
day of April, 1856, will settle this 
' question of veracity,' raised for him 
by Mr. Benjamin F. Hallett, by demon- 
strating that Mr. Benjamin F. Hallett 
has made against me (in the pamphlet 
I hold in my hand) wholesale charges 
without the shadow of truth in them. 

"Sir, Mr. Benjamin F. Hallett 
charges me with ' deliberate and re- 
peated perversion' of these resolu- 
tions; with having 'falsified the rec- 
ord ; ' with having ' garbled and per- 
verted' these resolves by 'quoting a 
single sentence, or a part of a resolu- 
tion ; ' with having ' twice misquoted 
them in the Senate;' with having 
' quoted detached sentences and half- 
sentences;' and with 'garbling and 
separating sentences.' Sir, these 
charges made by Mr. Benjamin F. 
Hallett I pronounce utterly and to- 
tally unfounded, without an element 
of truth in them. I never, in or out 
of the Senate, 'misstated' these reso- 
lutions ; I never ' misquoted ' them ; 
I never ' perverted ' them ; I never 
' quoted detached sentences ' from 
these resolutions, or 'garbled' them 
by ' separating sentences.' Sir, I deny 
in the most emphatic language the 
truth of these wholesale charges ; and, 
sir, I feel justified in applying to the 
author of these charges the language 
once applied to another by Burke, and 
to say that ' his charges are false, and 
he knows them to be false, and I know 
them to be false, and he knows that I 
know that he knows them to be false.' 

" Sir, Mr. Benjamin F. Hallett gra- 
ciously declares that he will not pro- 
nounce me ' a fool or a knave ' for 
'misquoting these resolutions,' as I 
' may never have read them as a 
whole.' Sir, his gracious condesceu- 



64 



LIFE OF HENRY "WILSON. 



sion is wholly misplaced. I assure 
him that my sins, if I have sinned, 
are not the sins of ignorance. Sir, I 
saw these resolutions in the hands of 
Benjamin F. Hallett on the morning 
of the 19th of September, 1849, in 
the cars between Boston and Spring- 
field, and heard him read them to the 
Hon. Charles C. Hazewell, then asso- 
ciated with 'The Boston Times,' a 
gentleman of extraordinary memory 
and vast historical acquisitions. After 
he had finished reading these resolves, 
Mr. Hazewell asked him what ' the 
Southern Democrats would say to 
them.' Mr. Benjamin F. Hallett 
promptly replied, 'I don't care what 
they say. We have risked every thing 
for them. They deserted Gen. Cass, and 
elected Gen. Taylor. They may take 
care of themselves, and we will take 
care of ourselves.' Sir, I was present 
at the convention when they were re- 
ported by the author : so, sir, I know 
something of these resolves and their 
history; and I know, that, when they 
were penned, he was smarting under 
the defeat of 1848. He was also look- 
ing hopefully to a coalition with the 
Free-soilers in the ensuing State elec- 
tion. 'The Boston Post' (the office 
from which the pamphlet comes), 
edited then and now by Charles G. 
Greene, navy agent at Boston, on the 
21st of September, in indorsing these 
resolutions (state and national), ex- 
pressed the opinion that the two mi- 
nority parties could act together in 
the jx-udiiig election on State affairs. 

" J\Ir. lieiijamin F. Hallett charges 
mc with having quoted 'garbled and 
disconnected extracts from the resolu- 
tions ' in my speech of the 23d of 
February, 1855. He is prudently care- 
ful, sir, not to quote these ' garbled and 



disconnected extracts' as quoted by 
pie in that speech. He did not do so 
for two reasons, — he did not wish to 
place them before the readers of this 
pamphlet ; and, if he had quoted the 
extract in full from my speech, it 
would have been seen at once that I 
had not quoted three 'garbled and 
disconnected extracts,' but that I had 
quoted three whole, entire, complete 
resolutions, each embracing distinct, 
independent propositions. . . . 

" And here, sir, I dismiss Mr. Benja- 
min F. Hallett to 'that sober and sa- 
gacious judgment of the people ' which 
he invokes, — a judgment 'which 
never fails in the end to detect and 
detest ' the man who makes unfounded 
accusations, or bears false witness 
against a political opponent." 

We give this long extract, not for 
the purpose of reviving and perpet- 
uating the unpleasantness of that 
day, nor for the desire to exult 
over the triumph of the senator, 
but to show the spirit that animat- 
ed the Democ'ratic leaders of the 
period, and with what antislavery 
men had to contend. The manner 
of the reply shows that Wilson 
was confident in his integrit}^ and 
in his ability to face the music, and 
give an account of himself that 
would not encourage another at- 
tack of the same character. He 
was at liome to all comers on ques- 
tions of veracity, and particularly 
to Benjamin F. Hallett. 

At tliis sessicni Mr. Wilson made 
a speoeli on the tariff in favor of 
a modification of duties, and said, 
" I think American labor will be 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



65 



best protected by taxing all the 
necessaries of life lightly, placing 
the raw materials which enter into 
our manufactures on the free list, 
raising revenue upon articles that 



cojne into competition with our 
manufactures, and upon the luxu- 
ries of life which are consumed 
by the more wealthy classes of 
society." 



CHAPTER IX. 



Thirty-fourth Congress. — Douglas and Wilson on Subduing. — Rusk on Fanaticism. — 
Brooks Challencos. — Central-American Affairs. 



BY the middle of April, 1856, 
the Kansas question had 
grown into formidable proportions, 
and was before the Senate for de- 
bate and consideration. Douglas 
was on hand with his cunning 
scheme of popular sovereignty, 
which he fancied would meet the 
moderate men of all sections ; 
but, in order to make it palatable 
to the advocates of slavery, he de- 
nounced with all the fierceness and 
ability at his command the friends 
of the Wilmot Proviso, calling them 
" black Republicans " and other op- 
probrious epithets, and threatened 
to " subdue them." 

Wilson took up the gauntlet thus 
thrown down ; met the great Illi- 
nois champion with good plain 
Saxon language, without any 
dodges or evasions, and in a style 
calculated to teach him that the 
present senators of Massachusetts 
were there for a purpose, and the 
days of compromises and child's 
play were approaching an end. 

Mr. Douglas had made a recon- 
noissance the year previous to feel 



the mettle of his antagonist, and 
had reason to be satisfied that all 
his own resources would be needed 
to save the day ; and he prepared 
for a vigorous conflict. Wilson 
was not unprepared, and in no 
mood to retreat. 

Among other things he said, — 

" The senator from Illinois may de- 
nounce us as black Republicans, as 
abolition agitators, if he thinks such 
language worthy of the Senate or of 
himself; but the issue is being made 
up in the country between the people 
and the slave propaganda. He told us 
the other day that he intended to sub- 
due us, I say to that senator, We 
accept your issue. Nominate some 
one of your scarred veterans ; some one 
who is committed, fully committed, to 
your policy. You want a candidate 
that is scarred with your battles. 
Well, sir, if he goes into the battle of 
1856, he will not come out of it with- 
out scars. You have made the issue : 
put your chieftains at the head. No 
man fitter to lead than the honorable 
senator himself in this contest ; for his 
position has the merit, at least, of being 
bold; and I like a bold, brave man 



66 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON". 



who stands by liis declarations. Now, 
I say to senators on tlie other side of 
the chamber, We will accept your issues. 
You may sneer at us as abolition 
agitators. That may have some little 
effect in some sections in the North, 
but very little indeed. We have 
passed beyond that. The people of 
this country are being educated up to 
a standard above all these little sneer- 
ing phrases. We will accept your 
issue; but yon will not, can not, sub- 
due us. I tell the honorable senator 
he may vote us down, but subdue us 
never. We belong to a race of men 
that never were subdued ; and, if any- 
body undertakes that work, he will 
find he has taken a rather costly con- 
tract. Subdue us ! subdue us ! Sir, 
you may vote us down ; but we stand 
with the fathers. Our cause is the 
cause of human nature. The star of 
duty shines upon our pathway ; and we 
will pursue that pathway, looking back 
for instructions to the great men who 
founded the institutions of the re- 
public, looking up to Him whose ' hand 
moves the stars and heaves the pulses 
of the deep.' I tell the senator that 
this talk about subduing us and con- 
quering us will not do. Gentlemen, 
you cannot do it. You may vote us 
down ; but we shall live to fight another 
day. (Laughter.) 

Mr. Douglas, — 

" He who fiijhts and runs away 
May live to fight another day." 

Mr. AViLsox. — "We shall not run 
away to live : wo .shall live to run. 
(Laughter.) We shall go into the 
conflict in the coming contest like the 
Zouaves at Inkermann, with 'the light 
of liatth' on our fac(!S.' If we fall, we 
shall fall to rise again ; for the arm 



of God is beneath us, and the current 
of advancing civilization is bearing us 
onward to assured triumph. 

" Now, I will tell you what we 
intend to do. AVe shall stand here 
and vote to defeat the bill reported by 
the senator from Illinois, because we 
believe, by the provisions of that bill, 
Kansas can be and will be invaded 
and conquered. We shall vote for the 
admission of this petition, for the ad- 
mission of all petitions, from the people 
of Kansas; we shall vote for the 
admission of Kansas into this Union as 
a free State. If we fail, if you vote us 
down, we shall go to the country with 
that issue. We shall appeal to the 
people, to the toiling millions whose 
heritage is in peril, to come to the 
rescue of the people of Kansas, strug- 
gling to preserve their sacred rights. 
Madness may rule the hour ; the 
black power, now enthroned in the 
National Government, may prolong for 
another Olj'^mpiad its waning influ- 
ence : but we shall ultimately rescue 
the republic from the unnatural rule 
of a slaveholding aristocracy. Before 
the rising spirit of liberty this domi- 
nation will go down." 

The events of the last few years 
show how much nearer right Wil- 
son was in his estimate of the 
course of events than his opponent. 
Kansas, instead of proving an ally 
of Democrac}^ became one of its 
most radical opponents, and helped 
to drive the nudecontents to des- 
peration and ruin. 

On the 19th of December, 1856, 
Wilson made a strong sjjeecli on 
the president's message, and allud- 
ed to Mv. Rusk of Texas, wlio had 
spuken of Northern fanaticism, and 



LIFE OF HENRY" WILSON. 



67 



asked if he supposed the people of 
the North were so stohd, ignorant, 
and deluded as to be deceived on a 
question of such magnitude. 

Mr. Rusk. — "I do not know that I 
used the term 'fanaticism ;' but I have 
frequently spoken of the slavery agi- 
tation, and I have as frequently ex- 
pressed the conviction which is on my 
mind, that all the hue and cry about 
slavery is raised, not by the people of 
the North, not by the mechanics, not 
by the hard-fisted farmers, but by 
disappointed politicians who desire to 
get into office on a sectional issue." 

Mr. Wilson. — "I hope the senator 
from Texas, and those who act with 
him, will disabuse their minds right 
speedily of that idea. Cast your eye 
over the North : take New England, 
with her hundred and fifty thou- 
sand popular majority against your 
candidate ; take the great State of 
New York ; take the whole line of 
Northern States ; and, when you look 
at them, remember that we have a 
large plurality in all of them, except 
in a portion of them included within 
about forty thousand square miles of 
territory, and tluit we intend to burn 
over in the next four years. I allude 
to Eastern and Central Pennsylvania, 
Southern Indiana, Southern Illinois, 
and a small portion of New Jersey. 
There we mean to discuss the ques- 
tion, and have it well and clearly de- 
fined and understood. The rest of the 
North is ours. If you believe that the 
people are fanatics, or that their leaders 
deceive them, remember one thing, — 
that in 1850 there were in the United 
States nearly eight hundred thousand 
free persons above twenty years of age 
who could not read nor write. Only 



ninety-four thousand out of this eiglit 
hundred thousand happen to live in 
the States which Fremont lias carried. 
Remember another thing, — that the 
State of Massachusetts, which you 
consider so ultra, a people so easily 
deluded, prints within a few thou- 
sand and circulates more newspapers 
within the State than all tlie fifteen 
Southern States of the Union. Re- 
member they have more volumes in 
their public libraries than all the slave 
States. Remember they give away 
more money to the Bible and Mission- 
ary and other benevolent societies 
every year than the entire slaveholding 
States ; and they have done so during 
the last quarter of a century. 

" I tell you, sir, that the people are 
ahead of us ; and that is what you fear. 
You say that they are deceived by us ; 
and then you turn round, and declare 
that you cannot rely on our disclaim- 
ers, because the people will pass be- 
yond the direction and control of polit- 
ical leaders. The people understand 
this question, sir : they know their 
responsibilities, their powers, and their 
duties. 

" The senator from South Carolina 
(Mr. Butler) boasted of the great con- 
tentment among the slaves in his sec- 
tion of the Union. He told us that 
slaves who had run away were return- 
ing to their masters, and that this 
was the best kind of fugitive-slave law. 
Perhaps the senator is right ; but the 
events transpiring all over the South 
hardly sustain the senators declara- 
tions. I commend to him, whenever 
he boasts on this floor of the content- 
ment of the bondman, the words of 
Edmund Burke : ' He who makes a 
contented slave makes a degraded 



G8 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



" Look at the condition of attairs in 
your section of the Union to-dav. In 
many places your people think they 
have found evidences of incipient re- 
bellions. The supporters of iJuchanan 
and Fillmore have rivalled each other in 
misrepresenting the sentiments, prin- 
ciples, and policy of the supporters of 
John C. Fremont. The leaders of the 
Southern Democrac}' have ever^^where 
denounced the Republican party as a 
party in favor of emancipation by the 
exercise of the powers of the Federal 
Government. The hungry ear of 
these bondmen drank in these false 
accusations and unjust reproaches. 
Your words will be to them a posses- 
sion forever, exciting hopes that will 
never die. Go home. Undeceive 
those whom you have deceived. Do 
us justice. Place us where we are, 
and where we intend to stand, — op- 
posed to slavery everywhere, in favor 
of its abolition everywhere ; opposed 
to the domination of the slave-power, 
but conceding to the people of the 
slave States their constitutional rights 
to settle the matter in their own time 
and in their own way. 

" Senators desired to know how we 
should vote on the admission of Kan- 
sas as a slave-holding State. I answer 
for myself: If Kansas apjdies for 
admission as a slave State, I will reply 
in the words of Caleb Gushing, the 
law officer of this government. In 
arguing the question of the admission 
of Arkansas, he said, speaking in 
regard to the power of Congress over 
the subject, — 

" ' The Constitution confers upon us 
the discretion to admit new States at 
will. It limits, in certain respects, our 
power to act affirmatively; but it does 
not limit in any respect our discre- 



tion, on the negative side, of a refusal 
to admit new States.' 

" Resting upon this authority of the 
distinguished legal adviser of the ad- 
ministration, I will answer your ques- 
tion, whether I will vote for the 
admission of Kansas as a slave State, 
in his words : — 

"'I do not persuade myself that 
liberty is an evil, or that slavery is a 
blessing. When called upon to accord 
my official sanction to a form of gov- 
ernment which not merely permits, but 
expressly perpetuates, slavery, I should 
be false to all the opinions and princi- 
ples of my life if I did not j^romptly 
return a peremptory and emphatic 
No ! ' 

" The senator from Texas commends 
our devotion to the Union. AYe have 
ever supported the Union ; and I tell 
you, sir, what we intend to do in re- 
gard to its support. The senator from 
Pennsylvania the other day denounced 
the Barnwell Rhett school of jjoliti- 
cians. I suppose he thought it safe to 
attack that little squad of fanatics, as 
he calls them, in South Carolina. But, 
sir, we, the Republicans, do not confine 
our denunciations to that little faction. 
We denounce your Governor Wises, 
all your chosen leaders who have 
threatened to destroy the Union if 
the fortunes of the election went 
against them, — the men who have 
your confidence, — the men who go to 
Wheatland, and have the ear of your 
incoming executive. I give j'ou notice 
to-day, gentlemen, what we intend to 
do. If the incoming administration 
sends into this body the nomination 
of a single man who ever threatened 
the dissolution of the Union, we intend 
to camp on this floor, an<l to resist his 
conliriiiutiun to the bitter end. 1 trive 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON, 



69 



you notice now that wfe shall resist the 
coming into power of all that class of 
men as enemies of the Constitution 
and the Union." 

In May, 1856, Preston S. Brooks 
of South Carolina made the brutal 
assault upon Mr. Sumner for words 
spoken in debate, and not personal, 
which startled the free States, and 
awoke them to a realizing sense of 
the approach of an era of blood. 
Mr. Wilson assisted in conveying 
his colleague to his lodgings, and 
the next day brought the matter 
before the Senate in a brief and 
appropriate manner, denouncing 
the act as " a brutal, murderous, 
and cowardly assault." It seems 
strange now that any one should 
have been in a frame of mind to 
doubt the propriety of Wilson's 
words ; but Butler of South Caro- 
lina and others raised a point of 
order, and Brooks himself a point 
of honor, — in those days it was so 
difficult for a Southerner to get out 
of order, and so easy for a Northern 
man. Brooks sent a challenge to 
Wilson, which he declined, but 
repeated the objectionable words, 
declared he thought them true, 
refused to retract, and stated his 
firm and religious belief in the 
right of self-defence. The manly 
letter declining from principle to 
fight a duel was fully approved 
by the Northern people, and had a 
strong influence in abrogating the 
barbarous fashion of duelling then 
in vogue at Washington. 

Burlingame, it is true, accepted 



a challenge from Brooks, but on 
terras that operated in the same 
way to render the practice un- 
popular. The duel having been 
declined by Wilson, there were 
threats of retaliation by the chiv- 
alry ; but they were not executed, 
and Wilson was not deterred from 
speaking his mind and getting out 
of order as usual. He addressed 
the Senate upon the subject on 
the 13th of June, and gave Sen- 
ator Butler a " dressing " such as 
the arrogant slavocrats were not 
accustomed to, and vindicated Mr. 
Sumner most triumphantly. This 
was a time to try a man's pluck 
and ability ; and it is proper to say 
that Massachusetts was worthily 
represented and vindicated. Ma- 
son of Virginia, one of the most* 
arrogant men ever in the Senate, 
afterwards so prominent in the 
" Mason and Slidell " affair, came 
in for a first - rate notice in .this 
speech. Wilson said, — 

"The senator from Virginia, not 
now in his seat (Mr. Mason), when 
Mr. Sumner closed his speech, saw lit 
to tell the Senate that his hands would 
be soiled by contact with ours. The 
senator is not here : I wish he were. 
I have simply to say that I know 
nothing in that senator, moral, intel- 
lectual, or physical, which entitles him 
to use such language towards members 
of the Senate, or any portion of God's 
creation. I know nothing in the 
State from which he comes, rich as it 
is in the history of the past, that en- 
titles him to speak in such a manner. 
I am not here to assail Virginia : God 



70 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



knows, I liave not a feeling in my 
heart against lier or against her public 
men. lUit I Jo say it is time these ar- 
rogant assumptions ceased here. This 
is no place for assumed social supe- 
riority, as though certain senators held 
the keys of cultivated and refined 
society. Sir, they do not hold the 
keys, and they shall not hold over me 
the plantation-whip. 

*' I wish always to speak kindly 
towards every man in this body. Since 
I came here, I have never asked an 
introduction to a Southern meml)er of 
the Senate, — not because I have any 
feelings against them (for God knows 
I have not) ; but I knew that they be- 
lieved I held opinions hostile to their 
interests, and I supposed they would 
not desire my society. I have never 
wished to obtrude myself on their 
society, so that certain senators could 
do with me as the}' have boasted they 
did with others, — refuse to receive 
their advances, or refuse to recognize 
them on the floor of the Senate. Sir, 
there is not a coolie in the guano 
islands of Peru who does not think the 
Celestial Empire the whole universe. 
There are a great many men who have 
swung the whip over the plantation 
who think they not only rule the plan- 
tation, but make up the judgment of 
the world, and hold the keys not only 
to political power, as they have done 
in this country, but to social life. 

" The senator from South Carolina 
assails the resolutions of my State with 
his accustomed looseness, as springing 
from ignorance, passion, prejudice, and 
excitement. Sir, the testimon}' before 
the House committee sustains all that is 
contained in those resolutions. Massa- 
chusetts lias spoken her opinions : and, 
although the senator has quoted ' The 



Boston Courier ' to-day (and I would 
not rob him of any consolation he can 
derive from that source), I know 
Massachusetts ; and I can tell him, 
that, of the twelve hundred thou- 
sand people of Massachusetts, j'oii 
cannot find in the State one thou- 
sand — administration ofiSce - holders 
included — who do not look with 
loathing and execration upon the out- 
rage upon the person of their senator 
and the honor of their State. The 
sentiment of IMassaehusetts, of New 
England, of the North, approaches 
unanimity. Massachusetts has spoken 
her opinions. The senator is welcome 
to assail them if he chooses ; but they 
are on the record. They are made up 
by the verdict of her people ; and they 
understand the question, and from 
their verdict there is no appeal." 

During tins Congress Wilson 
made many other speeches, giving 
his views upon opening the public 
lands to actual settlers, — a scheme 
he strongly favored, on his usual 
theory of giving working-men a 
chance to get homes without pay- 
ing a bonus to speculators, — on 
the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, and 
in favor of the Moin-oe doctrine. 

We give one short extract to 
show the nature of his ideas on 
these subjects : — 

'•'I would take care of our interests 
in Central America : I would let Great • 
Britain alone there, and leave it to 
her to commence an aggressive policy 
if she chooses so to do ; and, if she does 
commence such a contest, it should 
never close until the power of England 
on the North- American continent is 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



71 



forever broken, and we are left in pos- 
session of North America to the polar 
regions, where civilization is arrested 
by the barriers of perpetual frost. 

" I say then, sir, that the only way, 
in my judgment, to get out of our 
present embarrassment, is to declare 
the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty null and 
void ; to negotiate in Central America 
for the protection of our transit-routes 
across that country. The abrogation 
of the treaty does not lead to war. It 
is the policy which will, in my judg- 
ment, promote the future peace and 
interest of the country. I would vote 
against the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty if 
it were before us to-day ; for I can 
never agree to make an arrangement 



with England, or any other foreign 
power, that we will not exercise domin- 
ion over any portion of this continent. 
I have no sympathy with the policy 
that would extend the boundaries of 
the republic by lawless violence ; but I 
have faith in democratic institutions. I 

4 

believe, that, wherever the jurisdiction 
of this country extends on this con- 
tinent, the interests of humanity will 
be ultimately promoted by it. Agree- 
ing with the doctrine laid down by Mr. 
Everett in his admirable letter upon 
the tripartite treaty, I would never 
bind ourselves by any treaty obligations 
that we will not annex, if we and the 
people who live in the territory desire 
it, any portion of this continent." 



CHAPTER X. 



Thirty-fifth Congress. — Facts for Gwin. — Committees. — Running Debates, 
and more Facts. — Thirty-si.xth Congress. 



•Predictions 



AT the commencement of the 
Thirty -fifth Congress, the 
Democrats felt a strong inclination 
to curb the growing influence of the 
Republican party, and deprive it 
of all possible chance to interfere 
with the will and schemes of the 
administration, especially in rela- 
tion to the Kansas, slavery, and 
commercial questions. One of the 
ways to accomplish this was to 
exclude from the committees as 
many Republican senators as pos- 
sible and maintain any show of 
fairness and decency : but, it being 
determined to strike pretty deep 
in this direction, an excuse or pre- 



tence which would justify was 
thought desirable ; and Mr. Gwin 
of California was put forward to 
make it. He was very much as- 
tonished that the other side should 
make any complaints, " because it 
is but recently in the history of 
the country that the party to 
which those gentlemen belong ob- 
tained control of the other House, 
though in a minority there. And 
how did they arrange its commit- 
tees? There never was a more 
flagrant partisan character given 
to the committees of a legislative 
body, and they were never more 
sectional." 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



The moment Mr. Gwiii conclud- 
ed, Wilson was on his feet, and at 
once began to pile in his inexorable 
facts against the assertions of tlie 
California senator. He said, — 

'• I believe the honorable senator 
from California said the committees 
were never more unfairly constituted 
than at the last Congress, when the 
Republicans obtained possession of the 
House by an accident. Now, sir, I 
hold in my hand an analysis of the 
committees of the House of last year. 
There were upon those thirty-seven 
committees a hundred and thirty-one 
Republicans and a hundred and three of 
the opposition. The committees were 
constituted almost invariably of five 
Republicans to four opposition. The 
chairmanship of several of these com- 
mittees was given to the supporters of 
the administration. The chairman- 
ship of the Committee on Military 
Affairs, certainly one of the most im- 
portant committees in either House, 
was given to Gen. Quitman of Mis- 
sissippi. Xo man has a right to 
complain of the organization of the 
committees of the House of Represen- 
tatives by the speaker last year. He 
was not only just, hut liberal, towards 
the opposition. He gave four oppo- 
sition members to five Republicans 
on the Committee of Ways and Means. 
The Committee on Commerce was 
constituted of a majority of the oppo- 
sition, the numbers being four Re- 
publicans to five opposition. The 
Committee on Public Lands had five 
Rcpuhlicans to four opposition ; and 
tilt,' committees on the Post Office, 
the District of Columbia, the Judici- 
ary, Indian Affairs, the Militar}', and 
Foreign Affairs, were constituted in 



the same proportions. The Committee 
on Territ(jries was the only one con- 
stituted, as the senator from California 
says is the usual Democratic practice, 
six to three. The (Committee on Pat- 
ents stood three to two ; while the 
Committee on the Lil)rary had a ma- 
jority of the opposition, having con- 
sisted of one Republican to two 
opposition. The record will bear to 
all time the evidence of the fairness 
and liberality of Speaker Banks and 
of the Republican party. 

"My friend from Michigan (Mi. 
Chandler) has said that the time may 
come when the Republicans may have 
a majority on this floor, and wliat 3'ou 
mete out to us shall be meted out to you. 
I cannot concur with my friend in that 
remark. I trust, sir, that we shall 
have a majority on the floor of this 
Senate ; I have no doubt the time is 
to come when the men who oppose 
slavery and its power will have it : but, 
when that time comes, I trust the com- 
mittees of this body will be liberal, 
just, and national in every respect ; and 
that we shall not only be just, liut lib- 
eral, towards those who are unjust and 
illiberal towards us. . . . 

" An analysis of these committees 
has been made by the senator from 
Maine (Mr. Hamlin). Reference has 
been made to the Committee on Com- 
merce by the senator from Wiscohsin 
(Mr. Doolittle). Sir, it is well known 
that the protest was made last March, 
in this chamber, against the organiza- 
tion of the Committee on Commerce. 
It was believed, and declared on this 
floor, that the Committee on Commerce 
was organized so as to prevent river 
and harbor improvement bills from 
being reported. I have no objection 
to the senators who compose that com- 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



73 



mittee. The senator from Alabama 
(Mr. Clay), tlii^ chairman of it, comes 
from a State largely, almost wholly, 
engaged in agricultural pursuits, hav- 
ing but thii-ty-six thousand tons of the 
five million tons of shipping of the 
United States. The senator from 
Georgia (Mr. Toombs), coming from a 
State that has twentj'^-nine thousand 
tons of t-hipping out of the five mil- 
lions, is on that committee. The sen- 
ator from North Carolina (Mr. Reid), 
coming from a State that has sixty 
thousand tons of shipping out of five 
million tons, is also a member of that 
committee. These three agricultural 
States, having only a hundred and 
twenty-five thousand tons of shipping, 
have three members of this committee; 
while the great State of New York, 
with a million five hundred thousand 
tons of shipping, and the North-western 
States bordering on the Great Lakes, 
are not represented on it at all. The 
senator from Louisiana (Mr. Benja- 
min) is upon the committee, and I 
think fitly there, representing as he 
does a State located at the mouth of 
the Missis ^ippiKiver, and largely inter- 
ested in commerce. We were given to 
understand last year that these errors 
should be corrected ; and yet the correc- 
tion has not been made. Four of the 
members of the Naval Committee are 
from the Southern States, — States 
which have neither commerce, ships, 
nor seamen. . . . 

" For one, I do not complain of our 
positions on these committees. I take 
it we are all satisfied ; that we care 
very little about these positions. We 
complain of the sectional character of 
the committees. That they are sec- 
tional, everybody must admit. Why 
is not some chairmanship assigned the 



senator from Ohio (Mr. Lugh), cer- 
tainly one of the ables" supporters here 
of the administration, of the majority 
of this chamber? Take the twelve or 
thirteen important committees of this 
body, the only committees that are of 
any importance in the body, and but 
two are presided over by Northern men. 
The organization of this chamber, the 
organization of the government in each 
and every department, is proslavery 
But I do not know that we should 
complain ; for the fact now stands 
clearly revealed to the gaze of man- 
kind, that the present Democratic 
party and the proslavery party of this 
country are the same. The history of 
the one during the past twenty years 
must ever be the history of the other." 

During the first session of 1858, 
the Minnesota and Kansas bills for 
admission were frequently before 
the Senate for discussion, and often 
there were little running commen- 
taries, explanations, questions, an- 
swers, and retorts interjected at 
intervals during the delivery of the 
set speeches ; and it is in these little- 
sudden and unlooked-for encoun- 
ters that men exhibit their real 
knowledge and accuracy, rather 
than in the carefully - prepared 
speeches which may be crammed for 
the occasion, and a large portion of 
the valuable facts forgotten in a 
week after delivery. In these spurts 
of cross-firing Wilson was frequent- 
ly engaged, and displayed a surpris- 
ing amount of ready and important 
information having a bearing on 
the question or on the course of 
remark. 



74 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



Thus, wlu'ii Mr. Brown of ^lis- 
si.ssii)[)i objected to a provision for 
takini; the votes of civilized Indi- 
ans, Wilson retorted by saying that 
he should remember that the dom- 
inant party, to which Brown be- 
longed, (ibiained their ascendency 
in the Territory of Minnesota by 
the votes of uncivilized Indians ; 
that at one voting-place there was 
a large collection of the savages, 
and an Indian agent having some 
spare articles of clothing would go 
out and robe a few of them, bring 
them in, and have their votes de- 
posited ; then take them back, and 
strip them to use the same gar- 
ments on another lot : and this 
jirocess was carried on all day, and 
a large vote taken. 

In some of these speeches he 
would give statistics of the popu- 
lation of States and sections at dif- 
ferent periods, the relative gain and 
loss, the number of emigrants and 
States from which they went ; 
•and various things of that charac- 
ter. 

On one occasion Mr. Benjamin 
of Louisiana was tripped by our 
senator on some small point, and 
testily replied that he was " utterly 
tired and sick of discussing the 
■question on the asseverations of 
gentlemen as to what appeared in 
the newspapers, or what people told 
them. I look at the record in 
my hand, and not at what is told 
ine outside, nor at newspaper par- 
tisan statements." Now, that was 
very good for Mr. Benjamin, sick 
and tired, and, on the whole, an im- 



provement on the antagonist who 
copied from a paper in his " t'other 
jacket-pocket," as related in a for- 
mer chapter ; but Wilson knew 
about records and authorities, and 
Mr. Benjamin Avas met in a fashion 
not calculated to relieve his weari- 
ness or cure his complaint. Said 
Mr. Wilson, — 

" Mr. President, in reply to what 
seems to me to be rather an extraordi- 
nary remark of the senator from Loui- 
siana, that some senators were accus- 
tomed to bring into the Senate what 
has appeared in the public press : now, 
I liave sent for ' The Daily Globe,' and 
I find the statement I made verified. 
This ordinance appears at the liead of 
the Constitution as published there, 
and so appeared at the same time in 
the Territory of Kansas. ]\Ir. Callioun 
himself testifies that it was voted for 
as a part of the Constitution by the 
people. Although the senator from 
Missouri has told us that the people 
did not vote upon the Constitution at 
all, Mr. Calhoun testifies that they did, 
and voted for this ordinance as a part 
of the Constitution. 

" I wish to say to the senator from 
Louisiana that I have no contempt for 
the public press of this countiy. I have 
fully as much respect for what appears 
in the public press as I have for what 
appears in manufactured ofiicial papers. 
I will examine the statements of tlie 
public press to see whether they be 
correct, as I will examine wliat ap- 
pears in official papers and see if they 
be correct. The one can state false- 
hoods ; and we all know the other does. 
I desire to say to the senator from 
Louisiana, that, wlien I make a state- 
ment on this floor, I intend to make it 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



75 



on what I believe to be good authority ; 
and that senator knows, that, with all 
his ingenuity, he has never yet been 
able to show the mistakes or the mis- 
statement of any assertions of fact 
which I have made here." 

At one time Mr. Pugli of Ohio 
endeavors a corner in this fash- 
ion: — 

Mr. PuGH. — "Will the senator 
allow me to make a suggestion ? " 
Mr. WiLSOX.— "Certainly." 
Mr. PuGH. — "I understand the 
senator complains of the convention act 
of 1857, because it was designed to cut 
off the spring emigration of that year. 
Am I right ? " 

Mr. WiLSOJT. — "Yes, sir." 
Mr. PuGH. — " Then why does the 
senator complain that the spring emi- 
gration of 1855 voted ? It is as broad 
as it is long." 

Mr. Wilson. — "I will state the 
difference. This act provided for the 
taking of the census in March or April. 
Then the names were to be placed in 
the hands of officials to make up the 
registration. This was to be done in 
May ; and a residence of six months 
was required to entitle a man to vote. 
It cut off the thousands who went 
there as actual residents in March, 
April, May, and the first three weeks 
in June, — men who were to cast their 
fortunes in the Territory. The four 
thousand nine hundred men who went 
over from Missouri in 1855 went back 
the next day; marched back with ban- 
ners and music : they were not, and 
did not intend to be, residents. That 
is the difference. I hope the senator 
from Ohio sees it." 

As the senator from Ohio made 



no further remark, it is to be in- 
ferred that he did " see it." 

Mr. Brown, of Mississippi, 
thought Wilson made too many 
old speeches, and said he preferred 
old wine to old speeches. Wilson, 
in reply, said, " I will call the 
senator's attention to one of his 
old speeches ; and I commend him 
to the study of old speeches, 
especially his own old speeches. 
I like my old speeches, because I 
intend they shall be so sound in 
principle, correct in sentiment, and 
accurate in facts, that I can refer 
to them with safety." He then 
went on to prove that Mr. Brown 
opposed the admission of California 
as a State because it would destroy 
the balance between the slave and 
free States. "What!" he ex- 
claimed, " a balance between the 
North and the South ! a balance 
between the seventeen millions of 
Northern freemen and the seven 
millions of Southern freemen ! a 
balance between the minority and 
the majority of the country ! The 
whole doctrine is anti-democratic, 
is local, is sectional, in all its 
aspects, and should be scouted 
fi'om this chamber and from the 
country, as at war with our repub- 
lican institutions and our republi- 
can ideas." Yes, indeed ! How 
plain and clear to Henry Wilson! 
but how hard to beat into the 
brains of Albert G. Brown, Jeffer- 
son Davis, Judah P. Benjamin, 
and their Northern allies and fol- 
lowers ! 

Wilson was terribly in earnest 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON". 



on tlu' Kansas question, and threw 
his whole soul into it ; working da>' 
and night with an energy and 
perseveranee tliat wouhl kill out- 
right many who are regarded as 
great workers. He collated the 
facts, and flung them into the face 
of every senator who attempted to 
darken counsel, falsify the record, 
and mislead the people. Mr. 
Brown attempts to make it appear 
that the Boston Emigrant-aid So- 
ciety was at the bottom of certain 
troubles, that this society was in- 
stigated by a congressional circular, 
and that it is abolition interference 
in that form which stirs \\\) the 
strife ; and Wilson meets him by 
showing that the Aid Society was 
organized several months before the 
date of the circular. Brown com- 
plains that the society had a char- 
ter, with a capital of five million dol- 
lars, of which only twenty thousand 
could be used in Massachusetts ; 
and Wilson shows that the society 
never organized under that charter 
at all. Mr. Brown thought there 
was nothing very wrong in the 
election of March 30 ; and Wilson 
replies by showing that there were 
oidy fourteen hundred residents in 
the Territory who voted that day ; 
that seven hundred were free-State 
men ; and that between eight and 
nine hundred slave-State votes were 
cast in the town of Lawi"ence alone 
by men from Missouri, who went 
in there for that purjjosc, and went 
out when the voting was over. 
To back up some susijicious state- 
ment, a paper was read, signed l)y 



one Henry Clay Pate, which Wil- 
son examines, and tells the senator, 
that, in eleven lines of it, there are 
"twelve absolute lies," — as plain 
language, certainly, as any used by 
" Truthful James,"' or any other 
promulgator of information in later 
times. And now comes up his old 
idea, so long indulged, and so 
ardently labored for, — a union of 
parties with live ideas. " I think 
there will soon be a general union 
in the North as there now is in 
the South : we are fast coming to 
it. And let me tell the senators 
on the administration side of this 
chamber, that if they consummate, 
if they support, — whether they 
succeed or not, — the bringing of 
Kansas into the Union under the 
Lecompton Constitution, with a 
knowledge of all these monstrous 
frauds scattered over the land, 
comprehended by the whole coun- 
try, they will do more to unite all 
honest, liberty-loving. God-fearing 
men in the North than has been 
accomplished by any act ever 
adopted by this government. Your 
Kansas-Nebraska policy shivered 
to atoms the great Whig party, 
which had battled, sometimes suc- 
cessfully, for power here, under 
the lead of some of the most accom- 
plished statesmen of the country. 
Another party sprang uj), — the 
American party. It paused, it 
faltered, and it went down under 
the general jiidguicnt ol'tlic ]K'()]ile 
of the free States. The Ucpuhli- 
can party rose in one year from a 
few thousand men, and gave at 



LIFE OP HENRY WILSON. 



77 



the last presidential election a 
million three hundred and forty 
thousand votes. It came much 
nearer than you wished taking the 
control of tliis government, of 
this country. The opinions they 
entertain, the policy they avow, 
the sentiments that swell their 
bosoms, are deepening and spread- 
ing all over the land. Those 
opinions and sentiments will unite 
the Northern people. Those sen- 
timents and opinions cannot be 
hemmed in by lines of latitude 
and longitude. They will jet be 
adopted by fair-minded and honor- 
able men everywhere who love 
their country, who love justice and 
liberty ; and, whenever anybody 
shall raise the black flag of slavery 
and disunion in the South, he will 
find leaping from the ranks of the 
people thousands of patriotic men 
who will stand by the government 
and defend it." Very much so, 
Mr. Wilson ; but all do not see it 
yet. 

On the 17th of April, 1858, Wil- 
son made a short speech in favor 
of postponing action on the Pacific 
Railway Bill until December, on 
the ground that the government 
was in debt, the people were in 
debt ; and while roads could not 
pay, or routes like the one from 
Portland to Montreal, there was 
no chance of one paying to San 
Francisco. At the same time he 
was strongly in favor of the road, 
and regarded it as a necessity. 

May 8, 1858, he addressed the 
Senate upon the death 'of Judge 



Evans, a member from South Caro- 
lina, in language of feeling elo- 
quence appropriate to the occa- 
sion, closing as follows : " He will 
soon rest, Mr. President, beneath 
the soil of his own native State, 
which he loved so well, and served 
so faithfully. That State has giv- 
en to the councils of the republic 
many not undistinguished sons ; 
but the sods which will lie on his 
bosom will press the heart of as 
pure, as conscientious, as honest a 
public servant as she ever gave to 
the service of the nation. Let the 
people of his native South Caro- 
lina, let the personal friends who 
have known him so long and loved 
him well, let the sorrowing mourn- 
ers around his now-clouded hearth- 
stone, be cheered in this hour of 
affliction with the assurance that 
we the representatives of sister 
commonwealths, we his associates 
and friends in this chamber, will 
ever revere his name, and cherish 
his memory with affectionate re- 
gard." 

The speech of Mr. Wilson on 
the fishing bounties. May 12, 1858, 
was one of the best ever made 
on that subject. It was earnest, 
and crowded with facts. He tells 
them that his constituents have 
half the vessels, half the capital, 
and half the number of persons, 
engaged in the cod -fishery in 
the country ; that, at the opening 
of the Revolution, half the im- 
portations into the country were 
paid for by the fisheries of Massa- 
chusetts ; that the policy of Eng- 



78 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



land concern i lit;' them ^vas one of 
the causes of the Revolution ; that 
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson 
and John Quincy Adams thought 
that to foster the fisheries as a 
nursery of navigation was one of 
the landmarks of the government 
of the United States. Mr. Mal- 
lory of Florida having said that 
Massachusetts fishermen did not 
make good sailors and soldiers, 
Wilson told him that the crew of 
the old " Constitution," wliieh per- 
formed such wonders in the war 
of 1812, came from Essex County, 
Mass. ; and to lluit war Marble- 
head, with only tliirteen hundred 
polls, sent an entire regiment of 
soldiers. These things from the 
reading of Squire Eastman's seven 
hundred books. 

To those senators from the 
South who opjiosed bounties to 
the fishermen because they were 
a local interest, Wilson said that 
the whole amount of bounties 
would not exceed a hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars ; and yet we 
paid not less than twelve million 
dollars annually in duties on su- 
gar for tlie sole benefit of a few 
hundred planters in Lousiana, be- 
sides paying them fifty thousand 
dollars in the way of seeds ; that 
the State of Massachusetts paid 
annually her own postage, and two 
hundred and fifty-two thousand dol- 
lars towards the general expenses 
for postage, while tlie State of Lou- 
isiana dill not pay lier postage with- 
in five hundred and twenty-three 
thousand dollars. And so he went 



on pouring out facts and figures 
to show how much Massachusetts 
did, how little she asked for, and 
hoAv important tlie fisheries are to 
the commerce and navy of the na- 
tion. 

The John Brown raid is no long- 
er a source of excitement ; but it 
is a subject of deep interest, and 
ever will be. In 1859, however, 
it was different ; and many persons 
in and out of Congress had the 
idea that Brown had done a deed 
which would forever make his 
name infamous, and politicall}^ ex- 
tinguish any public man who was 
charital)le enough to the old vet- 
eran to call him crazy. When Con- 
gress met in December, one of the 
first moves of the Democrats was 
to annihilate Wilson by connecting 
him with the affair; and A. G. 
Brown came forward prepared to 
do the work, which seemed easy. 
To this end he produced a reso 
lution passed at a public meeting 
in Natick, Nov. 20, in these words : 
'•'•Ixcsolvcd^ That it is the right 
and duty of the slaves to resist 
their masters, and the right and 
duty of the people of the North 
to incite them to resistance, and 
aid them in it." He charged that 
Wilson was present at this meet- 
ing, which was a meeting of his 
friends ; and desired to know 
whether he in any mode opposed 
or resisted its passage. Wilson said 
he was present at the meeting 
as a spectator, but took no part, 
and that probably not more than 
twenty persons voted on the ques- 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON, 



tion ; that it was well known in 
Massachusetts that he did not ap- 
prove of John Brown's raid. He 
was in favor of free discussion, 
however ; and often went to meet- 
ings with whose objects he did 
not sympathize. 

Mr. Brown subsided upon this : 
but the press continued to harp 
upon it until the rebel raid upon 
Fort Sumter ; but, since then, 
John Brown's soul has marched on 
without serious molestation. 

On the 25th of January, 1860, 
Wilson addressed the Senate in an 
elaborate speech, able, pungent, 
and, as usual, crowded with facts. 
In this speech he undertook to show 
that rebellion was meditated by 
the South if they failed to carry 
the election ; and, to sustain liis 
points, he quoted from 'Southern 
papers the utterances of public 
men. One of these, by Senator 
Iversoii. of Georgia, that gentleman 
denied ; but his action afterward 
shows that his denial was of little 
worth. He admitted, however, 
that he did say, " Slavery must be 
maintained in the Union, if pos- 
sible ; out of it, if necessary ; 
peaceably if Ave may, forcibly if 
we must." Wilson thought this 
declaration incapable of more than 
one construction ; and he Avent on 
at great length in a manner that 
stirred the sensibilities of the Dem- 
ocratic leaders most profoundly. 
They were playing a double game ; 
plotting treason, but doing it in 
the guise of champions of the 
Union : and, as Wilson's speech 



stripped off the mask and exposed 
their schemes, they feared its effect 
in the pending election ; and so 
Mr. Clingman, one of their most 
eloquent orators, and Jefferson 
Davis, their ablest statesman, came 
to the rescue. Mr. Davis, strange 
to say, was not a disunionist ; he 
had been misunderstood ; he only 
meant to leave when the Constitu- 
tion should be destroyed. 

In January, 18G0, there was a 
running debate between Wilson 
and the two senators from South 
Carolina in relation to the expul- 
sion of Mr. Hoar from that State. 
Chesnut and Hammond alleged 
that South Carolina enacted the 
law, which Samuel Hoar, father of 
Judge Hoar and George F. Hoar, 
was contesting, because Massachu- 
setts had excited slaves to insur- 
rection, or committed some act of 
aggression : and Wilson showed 
that the law was enacted in 1820, 
long before the abolition excite- 
ment ; that it was held unconsti- 
tutional by William Wirt, then 
United - States Attorney-General, 
and Judge Johnson of South 
Carolina, of the Supreme Court 
of the United States. Hammond 
said he was governor when Mr. 
Hoar came to Charleston ; that he 
had known him in Congress as a 
mild, pleasant old gentleman, and 
not incendiary at all ; and he 
took care that he wasn't hurt, and 
in a friendly way invited him to 
leave. The aggression of Massa- 
chusetts consisted in sending him 
there. Why did she not employ a 



80 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



lawyer in Charleston ? Wilson 
said she did endeavor to ; but no 
one would undertake the case. 
The wa}- these senators were driven 
to the wall compelled the strong 
men of the South to come to the 
rescue ; and Jeff. Davis again en- 
tered the lists, and made a long, 
able, and interesting speech, in the 
course of which he quoted and 
eulogized Caleb Cushing, and de- 
fended Democracy. On the 10th 
of April, in reply to Mason of Vir- 
ginia, who had said the colored 
people in the North were dete- 
liorating, Wilson said, " I disagree 
with the senator from Virginia al- 
together. In my State we have 
between eight and nine thousand 
colored people : and I say here 
to-day, they are intelligent ; that 
they universally attend our schools ; 
they can read and write ; they are 
industrious ; and I may say, that, 
in intelligence and personal charac- 
ter, they are little if any inferior to 
the average of the population of 
my State or the country.'' He 
announced his intention at some 
future time to present statistics to 
prove that they were not tending 
to barljurism ; that they had made 
progress in the last quarter of a 
century ; spoke of the thirteen 
hundred free colored people of 
A\'ashingt()n as orderly, law-abid- 
ing, and increasing in intelligence. 
Mas(jn, in liis reply, made allu- 
sion to Massachusetts in a way 
that goes far to exi)lain how utter- 
ly such men misunderstood things. 
He said, '' 1 remember very well 



when I really had the good fortune 
to be in the State which the hon- 
orable senator represents, — Mas- 
sachusetts ; that riding through the 
beautiful country adjacent to Bos- 
ton, appropriated to villas, mag- 
nificent country-seats of hospitable, 
kind, and generous gentlemen, as 
far as my intercourse went with 
them, evincing accumulated wealth 
displayed in beautiful taste, I was 
struck with the fact, that, in three 
out of four of their most beautiful 
and highly-adorned grounds open- 
ing upon the public highway, there 
was not a gate ; and all the pre- 
serves of flowers and shrubljer}^ 
and all that which required atten- 
tion, and to be saved*from depreda- 
tion, were open to the highways ; 
and, wherever there was a gate 
(and the5^were very few), I never 
saw the gate shut. 

" I was struck with the fact, and 
remarked to a gentleman, ' How 
is this ? No means whatever to 
keep off the depredations of cattle 
who are allowed to roam at large ? ' 
— ' Why,' said he, ' that is not al- 
lowed ;' and, in all my ride, I never 
saw even a goat or pig upon the 
highway anywhere." (Here comes 
the point of the joke.) '• Well, 
but," said I, "in my country, and 
all through the South, the' really 
poor people pasture their milch- 
cows on the highways (and very 
good pasture they get) ; and their 
other stock I'lin ujjou tlie ]»ul)lic 
roads, and are not molestcil."" 

That was Senator Mason's idea 
of prosperity and a happy condi- 



LIFE OF HENRY "WILSON. 



81 



tion of society, set forth as a con- 
trast for the benefit of Senator 
Wilson, who knew all about pov- 
erty. Just fancy Henry Wilson, 
or any other Yankee, emigrating 
to Virginia for the sake of living 
in a country where pigs and goats 
obtain free pasture on the public 
highways ! Poor Mr. Mason could 
not enjoy his ride with no pigs in 
sight ! 

April 12, 1860, Wilson intro- 
duced an act to grant a million 
acres of public land to the cities 
of Washington and Georgetown 
for a school-fund. The proposi- 
tion to do any thing for education 
in the District of Columbia troubled 
the patiiotism of Jeff. Davis. He 
called it " a cheap humanity," and 
lectured the Massachusetts senator 
soundly. In his reply, Wilson 
said, " The senator says I had 
better look in my own neighbor- 
hood, to my neighbors and friends. 
I do look to them ; and I say at 



home and abroad, at all times and 
on all occasions, wherever I can 
give a vote to lighten the burdens 
of a human being, that vote shall 
be given. I give it at home ; I 
give it here ; I give it everywhere. 
It is not the first time we have 
heard remarks made here about a 
movement in my State called a 
' strike.' Let me tell senators they 
do not understand it. Men are on 
a strike in my State and town to- 
day that own the houses they live 
in. They are not satisfied with 
the prices paid ; they want more ; 
they have a right to demand more ; 
and I sympathize with them in 
their efforts to obtain better prices 
for their work. ... If political 
partisans, or men who predict the 
failure of free society, hope to 
make any thing by the movement 
of the shoemakers of Massachu- 
setts, they are destined to be sadly 
mistaken." 

And they were mistaken. 



CHAPTER XL 



Debate with Senator Hammond. — Mud-sills. 



IN 1830 Massachusetts and South 
Carolina met by their represen- 
tatives on the floor of the Senate in 
an intellectual and moral encounter 
that will long be held memorable 
by the people of the United States. 
These representatives, Webster 
and Hayne, were fitly chosen for 
the parts they had to perform ; and, 

6 



when the champion of chivalry as- 
sailed with extraordinary virulence 
and ability the character and insti- 
tutions of Massachusetts and New 
England, he was met and over- 
thrown by their defender in a strain 
of eloquence that no orator in this 
country has ever surpassed. 

In 1858 these two States were 



82 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



agaiii in coiillict on the same thea- 
tre and the same question in the 
persons of Wilson anil Hammond ; 
and we are constrained to sa}', 
without any hesitation, that Wil- 
son's defence of Massachusetts is 
ever}' way admirable, and worthy 
of a place by the side of the re- 
nowned effort of Daniel Webster. 
He does not, it is true, rest the 
case on the glories of Concord, 
Lexington, and Bunker Hill, or 
attempt to repaint the magnificent 
work of his great predecessor ; but 
he is as just, as fervid, and as glow- 
ing, in setting forth the other and 
greater achievements of the people 
in the advancement of the arts 
and the principles of civilization. 
Is tlicre any thing much better 
than this? — 

" But the senator from Soutli Caro- 
lina, after crowning Cotton as king, 
with power to bring England and all 
the civilized world 'toppling' down 
into the yawning gulfs of bankruptcy 
and ruin, complacently tells the Sen- 
ate and the trembling sulijects of his 
cotton-king that 'the greatest strength 
of the South arises from the harmony 
of her political and social institu- 
tions ; ' that ' her forms of society are 
the best in tlie world;' that 'she has 
an extent of political freedom, com- 
bined with entire security, seen no- 
wliere on earth.' The Suiitli, lie tells 
us, 'is satisfied, harmonious, and jjtos- 
perousi'and lie asks us if we have 
'heard that the ghosts of Mendoza and 
Tonpiemada are stalking in the streets 
of our great cities; that the linjuisi- 
tion is at h:in<l; and that there are 



fearful rumors of consultations for 
vigilance committees.' 

" Sir, this self-complacency is sub- 
lime. No son of the Celestial Empire 
can approach the senator in self-com- 
placency. That 'society the best in 
the world ' where more than three 
millions of beings created in the image 
of God are held as chattels, — sunk 
from the lofty level of humanity down 
to the al)ject condition of unreasoning 
beasts of burden ! That 'society the 
best in the world ' where are manacles, 
chains, and whips, auction-blocks, pris- 
ons, blood-hounds, si^ourgings, lynch- 
ings, and burnings ; laws to torture the 
body, shrivel the mind, and debase 
the soul; where labor is dishonored, 
and the laborer despised! 'Political 
freedom' in a land whore woman is 
imprisoned for teaching little children 
to read God's holy Word ; where pro- 
fessors are deposed and banished for 
opposing the extension of slavery ; 
where public men are exiled for quoting 
in a national convention the language 
of Jefferson; where voters are mobbed 
for appearing to vote tor free territory; 
and whei-e booksellers are driven from 
the country for selling that masterly 
work of genius, ' Uncle Tom's Cabin ' ! 
A land of ' certain security,' where 
patrols, costing, as in Old A'irginia, 
more than is expended to educate her 
poor children, stalk the country to 
catch the fainti'st nnirnmr of discon- 
tent ; where the bay of the blood- 
hound never ceases ; where, but little 
more than a year ag<i, there rose the 
startling cry of insurrection! 'Po- 
litical freedom' and 'certain security' 
in a land which demands IJiat seven- 
teen millions of iVeeuu'ii shall stand 
guard to seize and carry back fleeing 
boiidiiii'u ! " * 



LIFE OP HENRY WILSON. 



83 



Or is there any thing of the kind 
finer than this ? — 

" Mr. President, the senator from 
South Carolina tells us that ' all the 
powers of the world, cannot aholish 
the thing ' he calls slavery : ' God only 
can do it when he repeals the fiat, 
" The poor ye have always with you ; " 
for the man who lives hy daily labor, 
and your whole class of hireling 
manual laborers and operatives, are 
essentially slaves. Our slaves are 
black, happy, content, unaspiring: 
yours are white, and they feel galled 
hy their degradation. Our slaves do 
not vote : yours do vote ; and, being 
the majority, they are the depositaries 
of all your political power ; and if they 
knew the tremendous secret, that the 
ballot-box is stronger than an army 
with banners, and could combine, your 
society would be reconstructed, your 
government overthrown, and your prop- 
erty divided.' 

"'The poor ye have always with 
you.' This fiat of Almighty God, 
which Christian men of all ages and 
lands have accepted as the imperative 
injunction of the common Father of 
all to care for the children of misfor- 
tune and sorrow, the senator from 
South Carolina accepts as the founda- 
tion-stone, the eternal law, of slavery, 
which ' all the powers of earth cannot 
abolish.' These precious words of our 
heavenly Father, 'the poor ye have 
always with you,' are perpetually 
sounding in the ears of mankind, ever 
reminding them of their dependence 
and their duties. These words appeal 
alike to the conscience and the heart 
of mankind. To men blessed in their 
basket and their store they say, ' Prop- 
erty has its duties as well as its 



rights.' To men clothed with author- 
ity to shape the policy or to adminis- 
ter the laws of the State they say, 
' Lighten, by wise, humane, and equal 
laws, the burdens of the toiling and 
dependent children of men.' To men 
of every age and every clime they ap- 
peal by the divine promise, that 'he 
that giveth to the poor lendeth to the 
Lord.' Sir, I thank God that I live 
in a Commonwealth which sees no war- 
rant in these words of inspiration to 
oppress the sons and daughters of toil 
and poverty. Over the poor and lowly 
she casts the broad shield of equal, 
just, and humane legislation. The 
poorest man that treads her soil, no 
matter what blood may run in his veins, 
is protected in his rights, and incited to 
labor, by no other force than tlie assur- 
ance that the fruits of his toil belong 
to himself, to the wife of his bosom, 
and the children of his love. 

" The senator from South Carolina 
exclaims, ' The man who lives by dai- 
ly labor, your whole class of manual la- 
borers, are essentially slaves : they feel 
galled by their degradation.' What 
a sentiment is this to hear uttered in 
the councils of this democratic repub- 
lic ! The senator's political associates 
who listen to these words, which brand 
hundreds of thousands of the men they 
represent in the free States, and hun- 
dreds of their neighbors and personal 
friends, as 'slaves,' have found no words 
to repel or rebuke this language. This 
language of scorn and contempt is 
addressed to senators who were not 
nursed by a slave ; whose lot it was to 
toil with their own hands ; to eat 
bread earned, not by the sweat of 
another's brow, but by their own. Sir, 
I am the son of a 'hireling manual 
laborer,' who, with the frosts of seventy 



84 



LIFE OF HENKY WILSON. 



winters on his brow, * lives by daih' 
labor.' I, too, have been a 'hireling 
manual laborer.' Poverty c&st its dark 
and chilling shadow over the home of 
my childhood ; and Want was there 
sometimes, an unbidden guest. At 
the age of ten years, to aid him who 
gave me being in keeping the gaunt 
spectre from the hearth of the mother 
who bore me, I left the home of my 
boyhood, and went to earn my bread 
by ' daily lalior.' Many a weary mile 
have I travelled 

' To l)cg a brother of the earth 
To give ine leave to toil.' 

"Sir, I have toiled as a 'hireling 
manual laborer' in the field and in the 
workshop ; and I tell the senator from 
South Carolina that I never 'felt 
galled by my degradation.' No, sir; 
never! Perhaps the senator who 
represents that 'other class, which 
leads progress, civilization, and refine- 
ment,' will ascribe this to obtuseness 
of intellect and blunted sensibilities of 
the heart. Sir, I was conscious of ni}' 
manhood : I was the peer of my em- 
ployer. I knew that the laws and 
institutions of my native and adopted 
States threw over him and over me 
alike the panoply of equality : I knew, 
too, that the world was before me ; 
that its wealth, its garnered treasures 
of knowledge, its honors, the coveted 
prizes of life, were within the grasp of 
a brave heart and a tireless hand; and 
I a<x-ei)t('d the responsiliilities of my 
position, all unconscifius that I was 
a 'slave.' J have employed others, — 
hunilred.s of 'hireling manual labor- 
ers.' Some of them possessed, and 
now p(jsse.s.s, more property than I 
ever owned ; .some of them were better 
educated than myself; yes, sir, bet- 



ter educated, and better read too, 
than some senators on this floor; and 
many of them, in moral excellence and 
purity of character, I could not but 
feel, were my superiors. I have occu- 
pied, Mr. President, for more than 
thirty years, the relation of employer 
and employed ; and, while I never felt 
' galled by my degradation ' in the one 
case, in the other I was never con- 
scious that my ' hireling laborers ' were 
my inferiors. That man is a ' snob ' 
who boasts of being a ' hireling la- 
borer,' or who is ashamed of being a 
'hireling laborer;' that man is a 
'snob' who feels any inferiority to 
any man because he is a ' hireling 
laborer,' or who assumes any superi- 
ority over others because he is an em- 
ployer. Honest labor is honorable ; 
and the man who is ashamed that he 
is or was a ' hireling laborer ' has not 
manhood enough to ^feel galled by his 
degradation.' 

"Having occupied, Mr. President, 
the relation of either employed or em- 
ploj'-er for a third of a century, hav- 
ing lived in a Cominon wealth where 
the 'hireling class of manual labor- 
ers ' are ' the depositaries of political 
power,' having associated with this 
class in all the relations of life, I tell 
the senator from South Carolina, and 
the class he represents, that he libels, 
grossly libels them, when he de- 
clares that they are 'essentially 
slaves.' There can be found nowhere 
in America a class of men more jiroud- 
ly conscious or tenacious of their rights. 
Friends and foes have ever found 
them 

' A stubborn race, feariii;; ami flattering none.' 

"Ours are the institutions of free- 
dom; and tliey flourish best in tlio 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



85 



storms and agitations of inquiry and free 
discussion. We are conscious that our 
social and political institutions have 
not attained perfection ; and we invoke 
the examination and criticism of all 
the genius and learning of all Chris- 
tendom. Should the senator and his 
agitators and lecturers come to Massa- 
chusetts on a mission to teach our 
'hireling class of manual laborers,' our 
' mud-sills/ our ' slaves,' the ' tre- 
mendous secret of the ballot-box,' and 
to help 'combine and lead them,' these 
stigmatized ' hirelings ' would reply to 
the senator and his associates, ' We 
are freemen ; we are the peers of the 
gifted and the wealthy ; we know the 
" tremendous secret of the ballot-box ; " 
and we mould and fashion these insti- 
tutions that bless and adorn our proud 
and free Commonwealth. These pub- 
lic schools are ours, for the education 
of our children ; these libraries, with 
their accumulated treasures, are ours ; 
these multitudinous and varied pur- 
suits of life, where intelligence and 
skill find their reward, are ours. La- 
bor is here honored and respected, and 
great examples incite us to action. 
All around us, in the professions, in 
the marts of commerce, on the ex- 
change, where merchant-princes and 
capitalists do congregate; in these 
manufactories and workshops, where 
the products of every clime are 
fashioned into a thousand forms of 
utility and beauty ; on these smiling 
farms, fertilized by the sweat of free 
labor, — in every position of private and 
of public life are our associates, who 
were but yesterday " hireling laborers," 
"mud-sills," "slaves." In every depart- 
ment of human effort are noble men 
who sprang from our ranks, — men 
whose good deeds will be felt, and will 



live in the grateful memories of men, 
when the stones reared by the hands 
of affection to their honored names 
shall crumble into dust. Our eyes 
glisten and our hearts throb over the 
bright, glowing, and radiant pages of 
our history, that record the deeds of 
patriotism of the sons of New Eng- 
land, who sprang from our ranks, and 
wore the badges of toil. While the 
names of Benjamin Franklin, Roger 
Sherman, Nathaniel Greene, and Paul 
Eevere, live on the brightest pages of 
our history, the mechanics of Massa- 
chusetts and New England will never 
want illustrious examples to incite them 
to noble aspirations and noble deeds. 
Go home : say to your privileged class, 
which, you vauntingly sa}^, "leads 
progress, civilization, and refinement," 
that it is the opinion of the " hireling 
laborers " of Massachusetts, if you have 
no sympathy for your African bond- 
men, in whose veins flows so much of 
your own blood, you should at least 
sympathize with the millions of your 
own race, whose labor you have dis- 
honored and degraded by slavery. 
You should teach your millions of poor 
and ignorant white men, so long op- 
pressed by your policy, the " tremen- 
dous secret, that the ballot-box is 
stronger than an army with banners." 
You should combine, and lead them to 
the adoj)tion of a policy which shall 
secure their own emancipation from a 
degrading thraldom.' " 

This speech of Wilson's is one 
of the best ever made in the Sen- 
ate. It astonished the friends of 
the " pecuHar institution," and con- 
founded their " self-complacency," 
in a way, and to such a degree, that 
they never recovered it. 



86 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



CHAPTER Xir. 



The Crittenden Compromise. 



THE Crittenden Compromise 
is seldom mentioned in these 
days, because it failed, and there- 
fore was never able to do any 
mischief. Had it passed, it might 
have prolonged the agitations and 
evils of the period for a time, and 
postponed the war to a future 
day ; when, instead of Abraham 
Lincoln or U. S. Grant to deal 
with, the disunionists might en- 
counter some later Buchanan, or 
other person in favor of letting 
the " wayward sisters " go ; and 
then rebellion must have suc- 
ceeded. Mr. Crittenden was a 
disciple and follower of Henry 
Clay, and, of course, a believer in 
compromises for the cure of the 
diseases of the body politic. He 
was an able man, and honest and 
patriotic : but to argue that because 
Mr. Clay once saved the Union by 
a compromise, therefore that was a 
sure and proper remedy, was not 
the perfection of human reason ; 
but it was as far as Mr. Critten- 
den had gone. 

The compromises of Mr. Clay 
had been very jirolific, and fear- 
fully bad Ijreeders. When the 
spoiled cliildien and " wayward sis- 
ters "found tlu^y could gaii,i their 
points l)y threats, they threatened 
an<l increased their demands ; and, 
when this was done, there were 
plenty of statesmen desirous of 



imitating the brilliant success of 
Mr. Clay, and, to save the Union, 
would give away every thing that 
made the Union worth having. 
Mr. Crittenden was not probably 
conscious of the extent to which 
his scheme went in this direction, 
and acted with a sincere desire to 
heal our difficulties ; but Wilson 
fitly characterized it as a surrender. 
The resolutions were oifered by 
Crittenden Dec. 18, 1860, and 
elicited a debate of remarkable 
interest and ability. Wilson felt 
the momentous importance of the 
crisis, and prepared himself to 
meet it in a manner worthy of a 
representative of the old State of 
^Massachusetts, worthy of an Amer- 
ican senator, worthy of a citizen 
of the great republic ; and he did 
thus meet it. On the evening of 
21st February he obtained leave to 
speak out of order, and addressed 
the full Senate, and an audience in 
the galleries, which were packed 
to their full capacity. i\Ir. Victor, 
in his able history of the Rebellion, 
says the speech was one of the 
most elaborate of the session. '' As 
an argument it was masterly. 
As a statement it was more than 
individual in its opinions : it 
echoed the predominant sentiment 
of the unconditional unionists of 
the North." It was, in fact, one 
of the ablest, most eloquent, and 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



87 



thrilling speeches ever made in 
Congress ; and, had Wilson never 
made but this one, it would have 
been sufficient to have given him a 
national reputation. 

It is impossible to quote the 
whole, and not easy to give a por- 
tion without injuring the effect ; 
but we transcribe a passage or 
two : — 

" The senator from Texas (Mr. 
Wigfall) graciously assures us of the 
North, that if we will suppress our pul- 
pits and schools and presses, which 
teach our people that slavery is a 
wrong, and recognize the rightfulness 
of property in the bodies and souls of 
men, then they will condescend to take 
into consideration the question of con- 
tinuing in the Union. The senator 
dreams of Northern campaigns, — of 
going into winter - quarters at the 
Continental Hotel in Philadelphia, 
the Fifth-avenue House in New York, 
and the Revere House in Boston. He 
talks of dictating a treaty of peace in 
Faneuil Hall, on Plymouth Rock, or 
at Bunker Hill. That senator evi- 
dently has little faith in the capacities 
of the North for a contest of arms, 
should it come upon us ; while he mag- 
nifies the power of the South. Sons 
who hear the names and inherit the 
blood of an ancestry that rose at the 
sound of the alarm-gun on the morn 
of the Revolution, and followed the 
flag of independence over stricken 
fields to the crowning glories of York- 
town, who crossed bayonets with 
British veterans on the bloody heights 
of Lundy's Lane, and covered your 
youthful navy with renown on ocean 
and on lake, are not ' less valiant than 



the virgin in the niglit, and skilloss 
as unpractised infant-y.' We freely 
concede the bravery of our country- 
men of the South, and we do so in 
spite of their gasconade and boastful 
vauntings of chivalric courage. We 
of the North are quite confident we are 
as strong of arm, as skilled of baud, 
and as fleet of foot, as are our more 
boastful countrymen of the sunny 
South ; that we can endure toil and 
cold and hunger as well as they ; and 
I am sure the senator from Texas will 
admit we can endure thirst quite as 
well as they. 

" But the senator from Texas tells 
us that money is the sinew of war ; 
that we of the North have no money ; 
that they gather gold in hundreds of 
millions from the stalk of the cotton- 
plant. They send the negro, he says, 
to the field : he gathers cotton from 
the stalk, brings it to the gin-house, 
puts it through the necessary process, 
and rolls out a bale of five ten-dollar 
gold-pieces. But the senator did not 
tell us that it might have cost six ten- 
dollar gold-pieces to get this bale of 
five ten-dollar gold-pieces. The sena- 
tor seems to belong to that class of 
political economists that never count 
the cost of maintaining ' King Cotton.' 
I would remind the senator that we of 
the North take this bale of cotton the 
negro picks, pay the five ten-dollar 
gold-pieces, stamp upon it our skill, 
art, civilization ; send it back ; and they 
of the South promise to give five bales 
of the next crop for it : but I regret to 
say, sir, we are often forced to take 
fewer than are promised. I would re- 
mind the boastful senator that the 
people of the cotton confederacy are in 
debt to the amount of millions ; that 
they are not paying fifty cents on the 



88 



LIFE OF HENEY WILSON. 



dollar of tbt'ir iiuk-btedness ; that the 
proot'tnl-s of tlu' last cotton-crop will not 
extinguish that indebtedness. I would 
remind the senator — wlio tells us we 
of the Xorth have no mone}', that the}'^ 
I>ick it by millions from the stalk of 
the cotton-plant — that the working- 
men of Massachusetts, whom gentlemen 
of the South predicted would be in a 
state of starvation and insurrection ere 
this, have on deposit in the savings- 
banks alone forty-five millions of 
dollars, — millions more than are de- 
posited in all the banks of the seven 
seceding States by merchants, bank- 
ers, planters, and all classes of their 
people. 

" The senator from Illinois (Mr. 
Douglas) ostentatiously assumes to 
rise above parties and creeds and 
platforms, up to the level of the occa- 
sion. I commend his avowed purpose ; 
but I am constrained to say, after lis- 
tening to his speeches, that he has hard- 
ly come up to the promised position. 
Underneath all his vaunting profes- 
sions of readiness to ignore party 
creeds and platforms, and to know 
nothing but the Union, the senator 
discloses his eagerness to join in the 
reconstruction of the broken ranks of 
the Democracy, and his readiness to 
avail himself of passing events to 
achieve the desired object. To that 
end he is evidently quite ready, per- 
haps quite anxious, to surrender his 
' great principle : ' he cannot, therefore, 
fully appreciate the motives and action 
of those who are less facile than himself. 

"The senator from Illinois brings 
against us of the Ivcpublican party the 
accusation, that, after having brought 
the country to the verge of destruc- 
tion, we will not accept the (•oni])ro- 
niise measures of the senator from 



Kentucky (ISh: Crittenden") ; and are 
therefore, notwithstanding our profes- 
sions, not devoted to the perpetuity of 
the Union. Sir, I do not understand 
what the senator means b}'- these accu- 
sations against us of having brought 
the country to the verge of destruction, 
and of not being faithful to the Union. 
We did not at Charleston or Baltimore 
plot the disruption of the Democratic 
party as the first step to disunion, nor 
secretly plot the dismemberment of the 
confederacy, or the seizure of the 
government ; we have not been in 
complicity with secessionists, chaffer- 
ing for the postponement of rebellion 
until after the 4th of March ; nor 
have we sat in councils of the execu- 
tive, conspiring with plotters of rebel- 
lions, ruining the credit of the country, 
converting the war-office into an or- 
ganization for robbing the public treas- 
ury, swindling the people, and betraying 
the country — its forts, arms, arsenals, 
ships — into the hands of disloyal men. 
No, sir ; no ! We have violated no \a\v, 
human or divine ; perfornied no acts 
not sanctioned by law, hunianity, and 
religion. 

" Whatever may be the issue of this 
wicked, causeless revolt against the 
government, we are ready to abide the 
judgment of liberty-loving, law-abid- 
ing men of the present and of coming 
ages. 

" The venerable senator fn^n Ken- 
tucky (Mr. Crittendes) comes forward 
with his plan of adjustment : he stands 
forth as a pacificator, commissioned to 
compromise and adjust pending issiu'S 
to give repose to the distracted coun- 
try. I most cheerfully accord to the 
senator from Iventucky purity of mo- 
tive, and ]>atriotic intentions and pur- 
poses. ^\ iiilu 1 believe every pulsation 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



89 



of his heart throbs for the unity and 
perpetuity of the republic, while I 
cherish for him sentiments of sincere 
respect and regard, I am constrained to 
say, here and now, that his policy has 
been most fatal to the repose of the 
country, if not to the integrity of the 
Union and the authority of the gov- 
ernment. Whether his task be self- 
imposed, or whether it be imposed 
upon him by others, he has stood forth 
day bj' day, not to sustain the Consti- 
tution, the Union, and the enforcement 
of the laws, not to rebuke seditious 
words and treasonable acts, but to 
demand the incorporation into the or- 
ganic law of the nation unrepealable, 
degrading, and humiliating concessions 
to the dark spirit of slavery. Had the 
acknowledged chiefs of secession, or 
their Northern confederates, put forth 
these demands for concessions to slave- 
ry, they would have been promptly 
and indignantly rejected by the people 
of the North. Put forth in the hon- 
ored name of the venerable senator 
from Kentucky, they have received 
support enough to encourage the se- 
cessionists in their demands for con- 
cessions which can never, no, never, 
be made by the freemen of the North. 
The almost certain rejection of these 
propositions by the North the seces- 
sionists are using to deceive the people 
of the South concerning the sentiments 
of the people of the free States, and to 
lead them into secession and disunion. 
The ancient philosopher thought he 
could move the world if he could find 
a fulcrum for his lever : the secession- 
ists seem to act as if they had found 
a fulcrum for their disunion lever in 
the proposition of the senator from 
Kentucky, which, in bitter irony, is 
called a compromise. . . . 



" The senator from Kentucky, sec- 
onded by the senator from Illinois, 
proposes to incorporate in the Consti- 
tution a provision that * thk elec- 
tive FKANCIIISE SHALL KOT BE EX- 
ercised by any persons of the 
African race, in whole or in 
PART.' Why, sir, is this proposition 
of disfranchisement now made ? Who 
demands it ? What is to be gained by 
this disfranchisement of mon whose 
ancestors possessed the right of suf- 
frage before the Constitution of the 
United States came from the hands of 
its illustrious framers ? . . . 

" Massachusetts adopted her Consti- 
tution in 1780, during the war of in- 
dependence. That Constitution made 
the slave a freeman ; made persons 
of the African race citizens, entitled 
to the elective franchise. This right, 
secured in the troublous days of the 
Revolution to persons of the African 
race by John Adams, Parsons, Lowell, 
and their noble associates, has been 
exercised for eighty years. Now, sir^ 
the senator from Kentucky comes into 
this chamber, and proj)oses the disfran- 
chisement and degradation of citizens 
of Massachusetts, made so by her 
heroic sires ; and I blush to confess 
that there are men in that Common- 
wealth so false and recreant to human 
rights as to petition Congress to sus- 
tain this wicked, this monstrous prop- 
osition of disfranchisement. I know, 
sir, it is an ungracious task, in these 
days and in these chambers, to main- 
tain even the legal rights of a pro- 
scribed race. I am not insensible to 
the gibes and jeers, the taunts and 
misrepresentations, of a corrupted pub- 
lic opinion ; but I never can, I never 
will, consent, by word or act, to this 
crime against freemen. The material 



90 



LIFE OF HENRY -WILSON. 



interests of Massachusetts are dear to 
me; but the rights of lier people are 
far clearer. Still I tell her apostate 
sons, who have put their names to 
these memorials for the disfranchise- 
ment of her colored men, knowing what 
they did, that the constitutional rights 
of the humblest man who treads the 
soil of the old Puritan Commonwealth 
are dearer, far dearer, to me, than 
all those material interests for which 
they are ready to sacrifice the rights 
of their fellow-men. 

" Sir, in the dark days of our weak- 
ness, the ancestors of the men you 
would now, i n the days of j'our power, 
trample beneath your feet, freely gave 
their blood for the liberties and inde- 
pendence of America. The leader and 
first victim of the Boston massacre 
of the 5th of March, 1770, which so 
fired the hearts and roused the patriot- 
ism of the people, was Crispus Attucks, 
a colored patriot. One of that race 
mingled his blood with the fallen pa- 
triots of the 19th of April, 1775 ; and 
they stood with our heroic sires on 
the heights of Bunker Hill when the 
storm of battle clung around and beat 
upon it. They fought side by side. 
and shoulder to shoulder, with our 
fathers ; ' for the right,' says Bancroft 
in his narration of the work of that 
day, ' of the free negroes to bear arms 
in the public defence at that day was 
as little disputed in New England as 
their other rights.' When Major Pit- 
rairn — the leader who opened the 
murderous fire upon the patriots on 
the green of Lexington Common — 
mounted the works on Bunker Hill, 
crying, 'The day is ours!' he fell mor- 
tall}'- wounded b}' the unerring shot of 
Salem, a black soldier. 

" Hundreds of the ancestors of the 



men upon whose brows the senator 
from Kentuck}' would stamp degrada- 
tion entered the army, and fought 
with heroic courage on the stricken 
fields of the Revolution. Some of the 
most heroic deeds of the war of inde- 
pendence were performed by black 
men. A braver regiment than the 
colored regiment of Rhode Island, 
led by the gallant Col. Greene, the 
hero of Red Bank, trod not the battle- 
fields of the Revolution. Of this 
black regiment Tristaiu Burges said 
in the House of Representatives, in 
1828, that ' no braver men met the 
enemy in battle ; ' and Gov. Eustis 
of Massachusetts, secretary of war 
under Jefferson, said of them in 1820, 
'They discharged their duty with 
zeal and fidelity. The gallant defence 
of Red Bank, in which the black regi- 
ment bore a part, is among the proofs 
of their valor.' Arnold, in his ad- 
mirable History of Rhode Island, pays 
this noble tribute to the conduct of 
a regiment in the battle of Rhode 
Island, which Lafayette pronounced 
'the best -fought battle of the war:' 
' It was in repelling these furious 
onsets that the newly-raised black 
rcghneiit, under Col. Greene, distin- 
guished it.-;elf by deeds of desperate 
valor. Posted behind a thicket in the 
valley, they three times drove back 
the Hessians, who repeatedly charged 
down the hill to dislodge them ; and 
so determined were the enemy in these 
successive charges, that, the day after 
the battle, the Hessian colonel upon 
whom this duty had devolved applied 
to exchange his command, and go to 
New York, because he dared not lead 
his regiment again to battle, lest his 
men should shoot him for having 
caused them so much loss.' 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



91 



"Connecticut, too, raised a battalion 
of black soldiers ; and Col. Humphrey, 
attached to the military family of 
Washington, accepted a command in 
this corps. The heroic defence of the 
fort on the heights of Groton by Col. 
Ledyard and his brave comrades is a 
glorious page in our history. By their 
side fought and fell men of this hated 
race. History records, that, when the 
works were stormed, the British officer, 
exasperated by the heroic resistance, 
inquired, 'Who commands this fort?' 
— * I once did ; you do now,' answered 
Ledyard, handing the officer his sword, 
wdiich was instantly run through his 
body by the officer. Lambert, a black 
soldier, avenged this murder of his 
commander by thrusting his bayonet 
through the body of the British officer, 
and then fell pierced by thirty-three 
bayonet-wounds. Sir, in the great 



struggle for independence, in tlie war 
of 1812, on land and sea, the blood of 
the colored men of New England was 
freely poured out in vindication of your 
liberties, rights, and honor; and now 
you ask us to despoil them of their 
long-possessed rights. Never, sir, nev- 
er, by my consent ! In addressing the 
German working-men of Cincinnati the 
other day, Mr. Lincoln told them that 
' they were all of the great family of 
men; and, if there is one shackle upon 
any of them, it would be far better to 
lift the load from them than to pile ad- 
ditional loads upon them.' That was 
the utterance of a Christian statesman. 
These men you propose to disfranchise 
forever are all of the great family of 
men; and, if there are shackles upon 
them, it would be far better to lift the 
load from them than to pile additional 
burdens upon them." 



CHAPTER XIII. 



The People of Color. — What Wilson has done for Them. 



WHAT Henry Wilson has at- 
tempted and accomplished 
for the colored race is not likely 
to be forgotten by them ; but it is 
due to history that it be stated in 
a concise form in this volume. 

On the 4th of December, 1861, 
after the announcement of the 
standing committees of the Sen- 
ate, Mr. Wilson of Massachusetts 
introduced a resolution, that all 
laws in force relating to the arrest 
of fugitives from service, and all 
laws concerning persons of color, 



within the District, be referred to 
the Committee on the District of 
Columbia ; and that the committee 
be instructed to consider the expe- 
diency of abolishing slavery in the 
District, with compensation to loyal 
holders of slaves. Mr. Grimes of 
Iowa was chairman of this com- 
mittee. In moving the reference 
of his resolution to this committee, 
Mr. Wilson expressed the hope 
that the chairman "would deal 
promptly with the question." 
On the 16th of December Mr. 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



"Wilson introduced a bill for the 
release of certain persons lield to 
service or labor in the District of 
C'<^luinbia. The l)ill provided for 
the immediate emancipation of the 
slaves, for the payment to their 
loyal owners of an average sum 
of three hundred dollars, for the 
appointment of a commission to 
assess the sum to be paid, and the 
appropriation of a million of dol- 
lars. 

Mr. Wilson, on the 24th of Feb- 
ruary, introduced a bill to repeal 
certain laws and ordinances in the 
District of Columbia relating to 
persons of color, and moved its 
reference to the District Commit- 
tee. This bill proposed to repeal 
the acts of Conc^ress extendinof over 
the District of Columbia i-elating 
to persons of color, to* annul and 
abrogate those laws, to repeal the 
acts giving the cities of Washing- 
ton and Georgetown authority to 
pass ordinances relating to persons 
of color, to abrogate those ordi- 
nances, and to make persons of 
color amenable to the same laws 
to which free white persons are 
amenable, and to subject them to 
the same penalties and punish- 
ments. 

On the 25th Mr. Wilson ad- 
dressed the Senate in favor of the 
liill he had introduced early in the 
session. 

'• Tlii.s hill, to give liln'ity to the 
Loiuluuin," lie .siiid, " deals justly, ay, 
generously, by the master. The Amer- 
ican people, whose moral sense has 



been outraged by slavery and tlu' lilack 
codes enacted in the interests of slavery 
in the District of Columbia, whose fame 
has been soiled and dimmed by the 
deeds of cruelty perpetrated in their 
national capital, would stand justified 
in the forum of nations if they should 
smite the fetter from the bondman, 
regardless of the desires or interests of 
the master. With generous magna- 
nimity, this bill tenders compensation 
to the master out of the earnings of 
the toiling freemen of America. . . . 
In what age of the world, in what land 
under the whole heavens, can you find 
any enactment of equal atrocity to this 
iniquitous and profligate statute, this 
' legal presumption ' that color is evi- 
dence that man, made in the image of 
God, is an ' absconding slave ' ? This 
monstrous doctrine, abhorrent to every 
manly impulse of the heart, to every 
Christian sentiment of the soul, to 
every deduction of human reason, 
which the refined, humane, and Chris- 
tian people of America have upheld 
for two generations, which the corpo- 
ration of Washington enacted into an 
imperative ordinance, has borne its 
legitimate fruits of injustice and in- 
humanitj', of dishonor and shame. 
Crimes against man, in the name of 
this abhorred doctrine, have been an- 
nually perpetrated in this national 
capital, which should make the people 
of America hang their heads in shame 
before the nations, and in abasement 
before that l>eing wlio keeps watch 
and ward over the humblest of the 
childicn nf men. . . . Here the oath 
of the blaek man aftbrds no protection 
whatever to his propert}', to the fruits 
of his tnil, to tile ]icrsonal rights of 
liimsell', his wile, his children, or his 
race. Greedy avarice may withhold 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSOX. 



93 



from him the fruits of his toil, or dutch 
from him his little acquisitions ; the 
brutal may visit upon him, his wife, 
his children, insults, indignities, blows; 
the kidnapper may enter his dwelling, 
and steal from his hearthstone his 
loved ones ; the assassin may hover on 
his track, imperilling his household ; 
every outrage that the depravity of 
man can visit upon his brother-man 
may be perpetrated upon him, upon his 
family, his race : but his oath upon the 
evangelists of Almighty God, though 
his name may be written in the book 
of life, neither protects him from 
wrong, nor punishes the wrong-doer. 
This Christian nation, in solemn mock- 
ery, enacts that the free black men of 
America shall not bear testimony in 
the judicial tribunals of the District 
of Columbia. Although the black man 
is thus mute and dumb before the 
judicial tribunals of the capital of 
Christian America, his wrongs we have 
not righted here will go up to a higher 
tribunal, where the oath of the j)ro- 
scribed negro is heard, and his story 
registered by the pen of the recording 
angel. . . . These colonial statutes of 
Maryland, re-affirmed by Congress in 
1801, these ordinances of Washington 
and Georgetown, sanctioned in advance 
by the authority of the Federal Gov- 
ernment, stand this day unrepealed. 
Such laws and ordinances should not 
be permitted longer to insult the rea- 
son, pervert the moral sense, or offend 
the taste, of the people of America. 
Anj^ people mindful of the decencies 
of life would not longer permit such 
enactments to linger before the eye of 
civilized man. Slavery is the prolific 
mother of those monstrous enactments. 
Bid slavery disappear from the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, and it will take along 



with it this whole brood of brutal, 
vulgar, and indecent statutes. . . . 
This bill for tlu; release of persons held 
to services or labor in the District of 
Columbia, and the compensation of 
loyal masters from the treasury of the 
United States, was prepared after much 
reflection, and some consultation with 
others. The committee on the Dis- 
trict of Columbia in both Houses, to 
whom it was referred, have agreed to it, 
with a few amendments calculated to 
carry out more completely its original 
purposes and provisions. I trust that 
the bill as it now stands, after the 
adoption of the amendments proposed 
by the senator from Maine (Mr. 
Morrill), will speedily pass without 
any material modifications. If it shall 
become the law of the land, it will blot 
out slavery forever from the national 
capital, transform three thousand per- 
sonal chattels into freemen, obliterate 
oppressive, odious, and hateful laws 
and ordinances which press with mer- 
ciless force upon persons, bond or free, 
of African descent, and relieve the 
nation from the responsibilities now 
pressing upon it. An act of benefi- 
cence like this will be hailed and 
applauded by the nations, sanctified 
by justice, humanity, and religion, by 
the approving voice of conscience, and 
by the blessing of Him who bids us 
' break every yoke, undo the heavy 
burden, and let the oppressed go 
free.' " 

Affcer considerable discussion, 
this bill, introduced by Mr. Wilson 
into the Senate Dec. 10, 1801, 
passed the Senate April 3, 1802, 
by a vote of twenty-nine to four- 
teen. 

On the 1st of May, 1802, I\lr. 



94 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



Wilson moved to substitute for the 
sixth section of Mr. CoUamer's 
anien(huent to a bill ijitroduced by 
Mr. Trumbull in December, 1861, 
which provided fi»r the freeing of 
the slaves of rebels, "• That, in any 
State in which the inhabitants have 
by the president been heretofore 
declared in a state of insurrection, 
the president is required, for the 
speedy and more effectual sup- 
jiression of said insurrection, with- 
in thirty days after the passage of 
this act, to appoint a day when all 
persons holden to service in any 
such State (whose service is by the 
law of said State due to one who, 
after the passage of this act, shall 
levy war or participate in insur- 
rection against the United States, 
or give aid to the same) shall be 
forever free, any law to the con- 
trary nothwithstanding." In sup- 
l)ort of this amendment, ]\Ir. Wil- 
son said, — 

" I am free to confess that the pro- 
vision emancipating the slaves of 
rebels is, witli me, the chief object of 
.solicitude. I do not expect that we 
shall realize any large amount of prop- 
erty b}' any confiscatiou bill that we 
shall pass. After the conflict, when 
the Jin of battle has ceased, the hu- 
mane and kindly and charitable feel- 
ings of the country and of the world 
will require us to deal {.gently with the 
masses of the pcopli- who are engaged 
in this rebellion. It will be pleaded 
that wives ami children will suffer for 
till' crimes of husl)ands and lathers; 
and such a|>peals will have more or 
less effect upon the future policy of 



the government. I5ut, sir, talce from 
3'our rebel masters their bondmen, and' 
from tlie hour you do so until the end 
of till- World, to ' tlie last syllable of 
recoixled time,' the judgment of the 
country and the judgment of the world 
will sanction the act. . . . Slavery 
is the great rebel, the giant criminal, 
the murderer striving with bloody 
hands to throttle our government and 
destroy our countr3\ Senators may 
talk round it, if they please ; they 
may scold at its agents, and denounce 
its tools : I care little about its agents 
or its tools. I think not of Davis and 
his compeers in crime : I look at the 
thing itself, — to the great rebel with 
hands dripping with the blood of my 
murdered countrymen. I give the 
criminal no quarter. If I, with the 
light I have, could utter a word or 
give a vote to continue for one moment 
the life of the great rebel that is now 
striking at the vitals of my country, I 
should feel that I was a traitor to my 
native land, and deserved a traitor's 
doom. . . . While I would not take 
the lives of many, if any; while I 
would not take the propert}' of more 
than the leaders, — I would take the 
bondman from every rebel on the con- 
tinent ; and, in doing it, I should have 
the sanction of my own judgment, the 
sanction of the enlightened world, the 
sanction of the coming ages, and the 
blessing of Almighty God. Every day 
while the world stands, the act will be 
approved and applauded by the human 
heart all over the globe. . . . When 
slavery is stricken down, they will 
come back again, and otter their hands, 
red though they be with the blood of 
our brethren ; and we shall forgive the 
past, take them to our bosoms, and bo 
again one people. But, senators, keep 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



95 



slavery ; let it stand ; shrink from 
duty ; let men whose hands are stained 
with the blood of our countrymen, 
whose hearts are disloyal to our coun- 
try, hold fast to the chains that bind 
three millions of men in bondage, — 
and we shall have an enemy to hate 
us, ready to seize on all fit opportuni- 
ties to smite down all that we love, and 
again to raise their disloyal hands 
against the perpetuity of the republic. 
Sir, I believe this to be as true as the 
I holy evangelists of Almighty God ; 
and nothing but the prejudices of as- 
sociation on the one side, or timidity on 
the other, can hold us back from doing 
the duty we owe to our country in this 
crisis." 

On the 6th of May Mr. Wil- 
son withdrew his amendment to 
Mr. Collamer's substitute for the 
original bill, but offered another 
amendment as a substitute for JMr. 
Collamer's substitute for the origi- 
nal bill. Mr. Wilson said, " He 
(Mr. Collamer) puts it in the dis- 
cretion of the president. My 
amendment makes it imperative 
upon the president to issue his 
proclamation, immediately after the 
passage of the act, to fix a day, not 
more than thirty days after the act 
is passed, when the slaves of all 
persons who engage in insurrection 
or rebellion after they have had the 
warning of thirty days after the 
time is fixed, shall be made free." 
Again he says, " I feel deeply upon 
this question. The conviction is 
upon me that this is the path of 
duty to my country, and that the 
future peace of the nation requires 



that this slave interest shall be 
broken down ; and now is the op- 
portunity, — an opportunity that 
only comes to nations once in ages. 
It comes to us now. Let us hail 
and improve it." After various 
amendments the bill passed, leav- 
ing it discretionary with the 
president when to issue the proc- 
lamation. 

On the 29th of April, 1862, Mr. 
Wilson moved to amend a bill pro- 
viding for the education of colored 
youth in the District of Columbia, 
introduced b}^ Mr. Grimes of Iowa, 
by adding as an additional sec- 
tion, — 

"That all persons of color in the 
District of Columbia, or in the corpo- 
rate limits of the cities of Washington 
and Georgetown, shall be subject and 
amenable to the same laws and ordi- 
nances to which free white persons are 
or may be subject or amenable ; that 
they shall be tried for any offences 
against the laws in the same manner 
as free white persons are or may be 
tried for the same offences ; and that, 
upon being legally convicted of any 
crime or offence against any law or 
ordinance, such persons of color shall 
be liable to the same penalty or pun- 
ishment, and no other, as would be 
imposed or inflicted upon free white 
persons for the same crime or offence ; 
and all acts, or parts of acts, inconsist- 
ent with the provisions of this act, 
are hereby repealed." 

Let us now recapitulate the im- 
portant measures set on foot by 
Senator Wilson in this behalf: — 

1. He introduced the bill to aboh 



9G 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON, 



ish slavery iu the District of Co- 
Imnliiii, Dec. IG, 18G1, by which 
three thousand were made free, 
and all slavery in the District was 
made illt'y;al in the future. 

2. A bill that persons of color 
iu the District should be treated in 
law the same as white persons. 
This bill became a law 21 May, 
1862. 

3. A bill to amend the act of 
1795 concerning the militia, by 
which the colored men could be 
enlisted as soldiers, and all slaves 
made soldiers ; their wives and 
children to be free if they were 
slaves of persons in rebellion. 
Tkis bill became a law July 17, 
1862. In the committee of con- 
ference on the House Enrolment 
Bill, Mr. Wilson moved that di-aft- 
ed slaves should be made free 
on entering the service ; and the 
motion prevailed. Gen. Palmer 
of Illinois reported, that, in Keu- 
tuck}^ twenty thousand were made 
free by this provision. 

4. A bill making the Avives and 
children of drafted men free ; and 
this, according to the report of 
Gen. Palmer, liberated seventy 
thousand women and children in 
the State of Kentucky. The num- 
ber made free in other border 
States is unknown, but must have 
been very great. A writer esti- 
mates the whole number of per- 
sons made free under the above- 
named measures at two hundred 
and fil'ty thousand. 

o. He moved a section as an : 
aniendnient to the ApprDpriatiun i 



Bill of 1864, to give colored sol- 
diers the same perquisites and pay 
as white soldiers. 

6. He was chairman of the Com- 
mittee of Conference on the Freed- 
man's Bureau, and reported the 
measure. 

7. A motion by which land pur- 
chased by government at tax-sales 
in South Carolina should be of- 
fered to freedmen in lots of forty 
acres at a nominal price to enable 
them to obtain homesteads. 

8. A bill to abolish peonage in 
New Mexico, to strike the word 
"white" from the militia - laws, 
and to prohibit punishment of 
offences by whipping. 

9. A bill to incorporate the 
Freedmen's Savings Bank. 

10. A bill to incorporate How- 
ard University. 

11. A joint resolution, March 7, 
1862, to aid Maryland and Dela- 
ware to abolish slavery. 

12. A bill. May 24, 1862, to give 
colored persons claimed as fugi- 
tives from servitude the right of 
trial by jury. 

On all these various imi)ortaut 
measures Mr. Wilson spoke with 
earnestness, and a logic that was 
unanswerable. He worked early 
and late to get them in shape to 
secure their passage. They were 
passed, and are to-day almost 
uuaiiiiiiously approved by the jx'O- 
ple of the country. Surd}- no 
moTiument could add to the honor 
of a mail wliosc s]<.ill ami devotion 
have secured so nuicli to the bene- 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSOX. 



97 



fit of the slave, so much to the 
glory of the country. 

When, in consequence largely 
of the efforts of Senator Wilson, 
the colored race were able to avail 
themselves of the right of equality 
before the law, and sent to the 
United-States Senate one of their 



own number in the person of H. 
R. Revels of Mississippi, it was 
Henry Wilson who had the satis- 
faction of being selected to pre- 
sent his credentials, and thus 
practically to announce, that, in 
national councils, caste had been 
abolished. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Military. — As Chairman of Senate Committee on Military Affairs. 



PRACTICALLY Mr. Wilson 
succeeded Jeff. Davis as 
chairman of the Military Commit- 
tee of the Senate, little military 
business having been done after 
Davis left. As Mr. Stanton re- 
ceived the merited appellation of 
" the great war secretary " of Mr. 
Lincoln's administration, there 
seems little less pertinence in 
styling Mr. Wilson the " war sena- 
tor " during the same momentous 
period. It is doing injustice to no 
other member of Congress to say 
that no one else of either House 
was more active, untiring, and in- 
fluential, than was the junior sena- 
tor of Massachusetts. Not only 
as chairman of the Committee on 
Military Affairs was he officially 
connected with the military legisla- 
tion of Congress during those ter- 
rible years, but the report of its pro- 
ceedings reveals the fact that he 
introduced, managed, debated, and 

carried through the Senate, more 
7 



important measures than any other 
member. The same report also 
shows that he was not only found 
advocating those advanced ideas 
of human equality and justice 
which had marked his previous po- 
litical history, but tliat he brought 
to the task of legislating for the 
new order of things his usual prac- 
tical sagacity, and sense of equity, 
which prompted him, while doing- 
justice to all, to do injustice to 
none. 

Immediately after the beginning 
of hostilities, the president issued 
his proclamation for an extra ses- 
sion of Congress. Assembling ac- 
cording to such invitation, it met 
at noon on the 4th of July, 1861. 
On the same day, Mr. Wilson gave 
notice of his intention to introduce 
into the Senate the following four 
bills and one joint resolution : — 

A bill to authorize the employ- 
ment of volunteers to aid in en- 
forcing the laws, &q. 



98 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSOX. 



A bill to increase the military es- 
tablishment of the United States. 

A bill })rovi(lin<^ for the better 
organization of the militar}' estab- 
lishment. 

A bill for the organization of a 
vuluuteer militia force, &c. ; and 

A joint resolution to ratify and 
confirm certain acts of the presi- 
dent lor tlie suppression of insur- 
rection and rebellion. 

According to the notice given, 
he introduced these several bills 
on the Gth to the consideration of 
the two Houses and the country, 
and entered at once and vigorously 
upon the task of preparing and 
persuading the minds of both for 
their adoption. 

The bill for the employment of 
volunteers encountered differences 
of opinion, especially on two points, 
— the number of troops to be called 
out, and the mode of securing their 
officering. In the original bill the 
president was authorized to " ac- 
cept such numbers as he might 
deem necessary." An amend- 
ment was proposed, substituting 
for these words " five hundred 
thousand men." Mr. Saulsbury 
of Delaware, expressing his fears 
that " the Union could nut be pre- 
served by the mode contemplated 
in this bill," moved to sul)stitutc 
for '' five liiiii(bc(l tliousand nicn " 
•' two hundred thousand men ; " 
\vlii('h ^Ii'. Foster of Coiniecticut 
inliuialcil were '' tou many to nialce 
peace, and too few to make war." 
Mr. Wilson moved as an amend- 
ment, that " the president be au- 



thorized to accept the services of 
volunteers in such numbers, not 
exceeding five hundred thousand 
men, as he may deem necessary 
for the purpose " pro])osed, '•'• equal- 
izing as far as j^racticable the 
number furnished by the several 
States." 

On the second point, that of pro- 
viding officers for the new troops, 
there arose at once questions not 
without their difficulties, on which 
it was all but inevitable that there 
should be discrepant opinions and 
antagonistic claims. To do justice 
to the regular army, and at the 
same time to allow the army to do 
no injustice to the country, to ap- 
preciate and appropriate for the 
new service whatever of good the 
former contained, and at the same 
time, and for the same reason, not 
to imperil the latter by giving 
commands to epauletted incom- 
petence while withholding them 
from men in civil life who had 
both the necessary talent and tact, 
was not an easy task ; and yet that 
was the course Mr. Wilson sought 
to pursue, the policy he attempted 
to adopt. Upon a motion that the 
president might select major-gen- 
erals and brigadier-generals for the 
regular army, he said, '' There are 
several officers in the army, of great 
(lislincrKiii, will) \\i)ul(l make ex- 
cellent major and brigadier gen- 
erals. I think, and have thought, 
that those men ought to be selected 
in preference to civilians, however 
eminent they may be in talent and 
character." Thousih these were his 



LIFE OP HENRY WILSOX, 



99 



sentiments, he afterwards offered 
an amendment, which was accepted, 
that the " governors of States fur- 
nishing volunteers under this act 
shall commission the field, staff, 
and company officers requisite for 
the said volunteers." 

Upon the bill to increase the 
regular army, a motion was made 
that no persons should be made 
major or brigadier generals who 
had not served ten years, and no 
person should be colonel, lieuten- 
ant-colonel, or major, who had not 
served two years, in the regular 
army. Mr. Wilson opposed the 
restriction. While his action on the 
previous bill had revealed his pur- 
pose to stand by the regular ar- 
my, do justice to its members, and 
regard with respectful deference 
all proper "regulations," it was 
ec^ually plain that there were con- 
siderations paramount even to 
them. They were the safety of 
the beleaguered government and 
of the imperilled nation. There 
was something more sacred in his 
eyes than " red tape " and " sen- 
iority " in the army. Accordingly, 
after alluding to the fact that " one- 
half of the officers should be taken 
from the old army," he pleaded for 
the policy that would di-aw largely 
from the recognized abilities and 
patriotism that shone and burned 
in the civil walks of life. " Thou- 
sands of the young men of the coun- 
try," he said, " from law-schools 
and colleges, are applying for com- 
missions ; and the government can 
select young men of talent and 



character. There never was a time 
in the history of the country when 
men of talent, men of culture, 
men of experience, men of fortune, 
were seeking as they are now seek- 
ing admission into the army." Al- 
luding to some irregularity that 
had been complained of, he said, 
" The object is to get a military 
force into the field as soon as pos- 
sible ; and the government is of 
course compelled by the exigencies 
of the service, b}' the condition of 
the countr}^ to do in this case what 
it has been compelled to do in some 
other cases, — ' disregard forms and 
regulations." The object had been, 
he said, " in departing from the rule 
of seniority in the appointments, 
to take officers who were fitted for 
responsible positions to make the 
army most effective." 

Objections having been urged 
against some features of the bill 
because of the danger of entailing 
upon the country a gigantic debt 
and a " standing army," which, 
said Mr. Nesmith of Oregon, " no 
man here Avill live to see smaller," 
Mr. Wilson expressed his willing- 
ness to leave that matter to the 
future. " This country under- 
stands," he said, " its own inter- 
ests : and, when this contest is 
closed, the public burdens will be 
such that the people will seek all 
proper ways to reduce their ex- 
penditures ; and, if there is a man 
in the army more than they want, 
they will strike that man's name 
from the rolls. Believing that the 
people then will know what they 



100 



LIFE OF HENKY WILSON. 



want, what their own interests 
require, and that they will be just 
as eouipetent to decide this ques- 
tion as we are to-day, I choose to 
leave the question with them." 

To the bill for the better or- 
ganization of the military estab- 
lishment, which, as reported on the 
6th, contained eighteen sections, 
Mr. Wilson, on the 17th, offered an 
amendment, in the form of a sub- 
stitute, containing twenty sections. 
In explanation of its provisions he 
said, " I have labored night and 
day for many days and nights to 
fit and prepare this bill to meet 
the actual wants of the country ; 
and, in doing so, I have had to 
meet the interests, the jealousies, 
or the prejudices, of men connected 
with the army of the United States : 
but, in framing it, I have endeav- 
ored to be governed wholly by the 
public interest, and not by the 
wants and wishes of any particular 
men in the army or in the depart- 
ments." 

The joint resolution to approve 
and confirm certain acts of the 
president for suppressing insurrec- 
tion and rebellion of course excited 
much opposition, and led to acri- 
monious debate. In the course of 
the debate, the action of the gov- 
ernment in Maryland had been 
pronounced by one of its senators 
as " positive, arbitrar}'-, causeless, 
and wanton op})ression ; " Avhile 
aiKjilu-r liad askrd .Mi'. ^Vils(lll if 
lie was " ap[)iised (jf aii}' necessity 
for the sii.spi-n.-^ion of the writ of 
hubean covjihh in that State." 



He replied affirmatively, ex- 
pressing the conviction that a city 
which harbored and encouraged 
the conspirators who fired on the 
Massachusetts troops, as, obedient 
to their country's call, they were 
rallying to " defend the capital," 
richly deserved such suspension. 
" If there ever was," he said, " in 
any portion of the republic, any 
spot of earth, or any time, when 
and where the Avrit of habeas cor- 
pus ought to be suspended, the 
city of Baltimore is the spot, and 
the last five weeks the time, for its 
suspension." 

Though the war was not inau- 
gurated to destroy slavery, but to 
save the Union, it could not but 
happen that questions would arise 
in which the former Avould be in- 
volved, and concerning which the 
government, however anxious to 
avoid it, w^ould be compelled to 
commit itself to some line of policv- 
The first question that arose relat- 
ed to the principle that should be 
recognized in resrard to slaves wdio 
might escape and take refuge 
within Union lines. Should they, 
or should they not, be returned to 
their owners? There were many 
in the federal army whose sympa- 
thies were with the master rather 
than with the slave, and who were 
disposed to return the fugitive to 
his former owner. To meet the 
case, notice was given in the Sen- 
ate on the -Ith of December, 
ISGl, l)y Mr. Wilson, of his pur- 
pose to introduce a l)ill to pun- 
ish members of the arni\ I'oi 



LIFE OF HENEY WILSON. 



101 



arresting, detaining, or return- 
ing such fugitives ; and, on the 
23d, he actually introduced such 
a bill. During the discussion 
which ensued, Mr. Saulsbury of- 
fered an amendment, making it 
penal for officers and soldiers to 
entice slaves from their masters. 
Mr. Wilson expressed his opposi- 
tion to the amendment, and " to 
any legislation protecting, cover- 
ing, or justifying slavery for loyal 
or disloyal masters." " What I 
want to do," he said, " is to put 
upon the statute-book of this coun- 
try a prohibition to the officers 
of the army from arresting, detain- 
ing, and delivering up persons 
claimed as fugitives by the use of 
military power." 

But simply not to return fugi- 
tives, it was soon found, failed of 
meeting both the exigencies of the 
case and the growing demands of 
the popular mind. Why these 
thousands of able - bodied men 
should not aid in defending and 
fiCThtino; the battles of the Union 
was a question that clamored for 
an answer. Nor was Mr. Wilson 
slow in reaching the conclusion, 
that here was an element of power 
that should not remain unem- 
ployed, much less be left for the 
enemy to use. On an amendment 
to a bill before the Senate concern- 
ing the militia, that there should 
be no exemption " on account of 
color or lineage," Mr. Wilson ex- 
pressed his admiration at the au- 
dacity and thoroughness with 
which the Southern leaders carried 



forward their Avork of treason, 
" using every man who could do 
any thing, no matter how halt or 
maimed he might be, if he could 
strike a blow." " We are," he 
said, " in one of the darkest periods 
of the contest : and we had better 
look our position in the face ; meet 
the responsibilities of the hour ; 
rise to the demands of the occasion ; 
pour out our money ; summon our 
men to the field ; go ourselves, if 
we can do any good, and overthrow 
this confederate power, that feels 
to-day, over its recent magnificent 
triumphs, that it has already 
achieved its independence. Bold 
and decisive action alone, in the 
cabinet and in the field, can re- 
trieve our adverse fortunes, and 
carry our country triumphantly 
through the perils that threaten to 
dismember the republic." 

Subsequently, during the dis- 
cussion of the measure, Mr. Wil- 
son reported a bill with fifteen 
sections relating to this subject. 
The bill was passed and approved 
on the 17th of July, 1862 ; and 
thus was taken one of those strides 
in the course of justice to others 
on which the nation entered main- 
ly in self-defence, — a measure 
which Senator Saulsbury bitterly 
denounced as " the most magnifi- 
cent scheme of emancipation yet 
proposed." 

As the war advanced with at 
best a varied experience of light 
and shade, successes and reverses, 
as the army was wasting away, 
and the "beginning of the end" 



102 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON, 



did not appear, it became evident 
that tliere oui^lit to be not only 
more vigor infused into its opera- 
tions, but something more reliable 
than the system of voluntary en- 
listments to supply the waste of 
numbers, and to give confidence to 
both the army and the nation. To 
meet this great want, Mr. Wilson 
reported, from the Committee on 
Military Affairs, a bill for calling 
out and enrolling the national 
forces, and other purposes, in thir- 
ty-six sections. In explanation of 
its provisions Mr. Wilson said, — 

"Sir, we have endeavored to frame 
this great measure for the defence of 
the perilled nation against the blows 
of armed treason so as to bear as lightly 
as possible \i])on the toiling masses, 
and to put the burdens (as far as we 
could do so) equally upon the more 
favored of the sons of men. It is im- 
possible, in this world of inequality, to 
frame a measure of this character to 
bear equally upon all conditions of 
men ; but this bill has been framed 
in the earnest desire to make its bur- 
dens fill as gently as possible upon 
the poor and dependent sons of toil. 
But it is a high and sacred duty, rest- 
ing alike upon all the citizens of the 
republic, upon the sons of toil and 
misfortune and the more favored few, 
to labor, to suffer, ay, to die if need 
be, for the country. Never since the 
dawn of creation have the men of any 
age been summoned to the perform- 
ance of a higher or nobler duty than 
are the men of this generation in 
America. The pa.ssage of this great 
measure will clothe the president with 
aiiii)li.- autlmrity to suiiuii'in iurth tin- 



' sons of the republic to the perform- 
ance of the high and sacred duty of 
saving their country now menaced, 
and the perilled cause of freedom and 
civilization in America, and of win- 
ning the lasting gratitude of coming 
ages, and that enduring renown which 
follows every duty nobly and bravely 
done. The enactment of this bill will 
give confidence to the government, 
strength to the country, and joy to the 
worn and weary soldiers of the repub- 
lic around their camp-fires in the land 
of the Rebellion." 

On the question of who should 
be exempted from the draft, there 
was quite a divergence of senti- 
ment. On the motion to exempt 
the clergy, Mr. Wilson said that 
he " would not exempt lawyers 
and clergymen ; " though subse- 
quently he offered and supported 
an amendment that " ministers of 
the gospel, or members of religious 
denominations, conscientiously op- 
posed to the bearing of arms, might 
be considered non-combatants, and 
be assigned to some other service." 

During the last session of the 
Thirty-seventh and in the Thirty- 
eighth Congress, Wilson introduced 
and carried through, besides the 
above-named, — 

A bill to facilitate the discharge 
of disabled soldiers. 

A bill to improve the organiza- 
tion of cavalry forces. 

A bill to amend an act for enroll- 
ing and calling out the national 
forces. 

A l)ill to establish a uniform sys- 
tem of ambulances. 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



103 



A bill to increase the pay of sol- 
diers to sixteen dollars per month. 

A bill to provide for the exami- 
nation of officers of the army. 

A bill to re-organize the quar- 
termaster's department. 

A bill to incorporate the Nation- 
al Academy of Sciences. 

A joint resolution recommending 
the appointment of wounded sol- 
diers to office. 

In the Thirty-ninth Congress, 
1866, Mr. Wilson introduced a 
bounty bill for the benefit of sol- 
diers in the war, which failed to 
pass ; but he was subsequently 
upon a committee of conference, 
where he secured an agreement 
upon the main provisions of the 
bill reported by him, and they were 
enacted into the present law. 

Gen. Scott, at the close of the 
extra session, 1861, wrote Wilson 
a warm letter of thanks for his ser- 
vices, and expressed the opinion 
that he had done more work at 
that session than all the chairmen 
of the military committees for 
twenty years ; and he did it well. 
Mr. Cameron too, secretary of 
war, pronounced his services " in- 
valuable." 

But the drafting of bills, and 
making of speeches, and watching 
measures on their passage, and 
taking care of them, is only a frac- 
tion of the duty of the chairman 
in time of war. During the four 
years of conflict, the people went 
to Washington, many with knap- 
sacks on their backs, and many 
others with only carpet-bags ; but. 



whether with knapsacks or only 
bags, a great many of them wanted 
some attention. Privates wanted 
to be made officers ; officers wanted 
promotion ; men and officers want- 
ed furloughs, or had been bothered 
about their pay or their rations, or 
had been abused or neglected by 
somebody ; and they must have 
the influence of the chairman to 
get their several cases looked into. 
Civilians wanted appointments for 
themselves or their friends in the 
departments or in the army ; or 
they wanted soldiers discharged 
because they were minors or non 
compos ; or they wanted contracts ; 
or they had some new patent-gun, 
or Greek fire, or infernal machine, 
which would end the war in less 
time than Gov. Seward predicted, 
if they could only get the generals 
or corporals of the army to ex- 
amine them. These folks came 
down upon him in swarms, — large 
numbers of ^nem with business 
that was legitimate enough and 
should be attended to, but not 
officially belonging to him. But 
nearly everybody knew Wilson : 
he had made a speech in their 
town, or brother Charles or broth- 
er John was personally acquainted 
with him ; and he had, besides, the 
reputation of being always ready 
to take up any case of suffering or 
hardship. 

So they were after him day and 
night, before breakfast and after 
dinner, on his Avay to the Capitol 
or to the War Department, at the 
committee-room, in the corridors, 



104 



LIFE OF HKNRY WILSON. 



and everywhere. Aiul then the let- 
ters, — tlie loni]^. ineL;il)le, nndeci- 
jtheraljle, recommendatory, com- 
phiining, soliciting, and condemna- 
tory, all sorts and kinds, and all to 
be attended to, acknowledged, and 
most of them answered, — these 
things kept Wilson hard at work 
lonij after midnischt nearly all the 

O CD ^ 

time. 

And 3'et he thought he was not 
doing enough. We well remem- 
ber walking with him one even- 
ing, after the adjournment, in tlie 
Capitol-grounds, and hearing him 
say that he was ashamed tliat 
he was not doing more for the 
cause, and that lie believed he 
should go home and raise a regi- 
ment for the war. A day or two 
after this, he expressed his firm 
intention to enter the military 
service, and started for Massachu- 
setts, where he raised the Twenty- 
second Regiment, nine companies 
of the Twenty-third Regiment, one 
company of sharpshooters, and two 
batteries of artillery. He went 
to Washington with the Twen- 
ty-second, encamped on Hall's 
Hill in Virginia, and ultimately 



resigned the colonelcy to Col. 
Gove, it being the decided opinion 
of leading men that he could not 
be spared from the committee and 
the Senate. Tlie Twenty-second 
was a very fine regiment; but, 
in getting it ready, he spent all his 
money, and ran in debt a thousand 
dollars in addition. Many of the 
soldiers of this regiment and the 
families of those who never came 
home have since been in distressed 
circumstances ; and no case has 
come to the knowledge of their 
first commander without meeting 
a generous response. We can say 
with certainty, that no soldier in 
distress has ever asked from AVil- 
son a contribution that he didn't 
get, if Wilson had the money. In 
order to make himself more famil- 
iar with the wants of the army 
and the details of the camp, Wil- 
son joined the staff of Gen. Mc- 
Clellan. This was the largest 
staff ever seen in Washington ; 
and Wilson learned many use- 
ful thing^s while connected with 
it, which were of use to him as 
a senator, and member of commit- 
tee. 



CHAPTER XV. 



Reconstruction. 



THE Tliirty-ninth Congr- -^-^untry and to mankind that evei 
which met Dec. 4, 18C5, \ _, , sat. The armies of the Rebellion 
one of the most important to the | had been crushed ; slavery had 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



105 



gone down ; the rebel States which 
had been living under the confed- 
erate constitution and laws were 
— they did not exactly know 
where : and what to do, and how 
to do it ; what to enact in order to 
secure equal rights to all, black 
and white ; what should be done to 
prevent another rebellion, without 
at the same time being harsh and 
seemingly oppressive to those who 
had raised the one which had been 
put down, — these were grave prob- 
lems. They were much compli- 
cated by the condition of parties in 
the North. Had the people of the 
North been agreed, much of the 
difficulty of the situation would 
have been avoided ; for the insur- 
gents would have seen the full 
meaning of their defeat, and their 
submission would have been real, 
while now it was only pretended. 
They were conquered physically, 
but, in spirit and language and 
purpose, defiant as ever. The 
Democrats of the North kept alive 
the hope of a re-action in their 
favor in some of the States ; and, 
when that should come, they could, 
by the aid of the rebel votes, return 
to power ; and so they encouraged 
the rebel spirit, and denounced the 
Republicans as usurpers and ty- 
rants. The effect of this conduct 
compelled the Republicans to adopt 
measures for the protection of the 
Union-men and freed-men, which 
otherwise would have been wholly 
unnecessary ; and hence all the 
centralization, and all the acts 
complained of as tyrannical, came 



as a necessary consequence of the 
hostile, defiant, and rebellious atti- 
tude of those who had agreed to 
accept the situation. History will 
declare that no rebel — officer, pri- 
vate, politician, or citizen — who 
came in and frankly acknowledged 
his intention to accord to the col- 
ored race the rights that were 
acquired by the proclamation, 
and acted accordingly, has ever 
been refused full and complete 
amnesty in letter and spirit, or 
denied any of the rights or privi- 
leges, social, moral, or political, 
that are enjoyed by any of the 
most favored of the people. The 
trouble was, they wanted all with- 
out making this concession ; and 
whether to grant it or not consti- 
tutes the principal practical differ- 
ence in parties to-day. But the 
slaves were men now ; and, in the 
absence of any disposition on the 
part of the dominant white race to 
do them justice, their rights must 
be secured by the power that had 
granted them. The power to grant 
involves the power and duty to 
defend ; and in this case that power 
was the nation, and its prerogatives 
and responsibilities were now in 
the hands of the Republican party. 
Wilson, by the generosity of his 
nature and by conviction, was in 
favor of the mildest measures the 
nature of the case would permit, 
and grre securitj^; and, in many of 
b' ..jcbes before and during the 
llion, was always charitable 
to the actors, however severely he 
condemned and denounced the ac- 



lOG 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



tions. But he did not let liis kindly 
feelings blind him to the necessity of 
studying the situation, and adopt- 
ing such measures as would make 
plain the meaning of the bloody 
conflict. So much life and treasure 
must not be expended merely to 
get things back where they were 
in 18G0. 

It will be impossible to give a 
full account of his connection with 
measures during this Congress. A 
hasty sketch must suffice. 

In the course of the debate on 
the Freedmen's Bureau, Mr. Cowan 
of Pennsylvania, one of those con- 
servative gentlemen of the Repub- 
lican party who usually voted with 
the Democrats, and did all they 
could to deinoralize the party and 
defeat its policy, said, " Thank God, 
we are now rid of slavery ! Let 
the friends of the negro (and I am 
one) be satisfied to treat him as he 
is treated in Pennsylvania, as he 
is treated in Ohio, as he is treated 
everywhere where people have 
maintained their sanity upon the 
question." This was too much for 
"Wilson ; and he rejoined, in that 
pungent, crisp style for which he 
is distinguished, as follows : — 

" The senator from Pennsylvania 
tells us that he is the friend of the 
negro. What, sir, he the friend of the 
negro I Why, sir, there has hardly 
been a proposition before the Senate of 
the United States for the last five years, 
looking to the emancipation of the ne- 
gro and the protection of his rights, 
thiit that senator lias not sturdily op- 
pu.scd. He has hardly ever uttered a 



word upon this floor the tendenc}' of 
which has not been to degi'ade and be- 
little a weak and struggling race. He, 
comes here to-day, and thanks God that 
they are free, when his vote and his 
voice for five years, with hardly an ex- 
ception, have been against making 
them free. He thanks God, sir, that 
your work and mine — our work, which 
has saved a country and emancipated a 
race — is secured ; while from the word 
' go ' to this time ho has made himself 
the champion of ' how not to do it.' 
If there be a man on the floor of the 
American Senate who has tortured the 
Constitution of the country to find 
powers to arrest the voice of this na- 
tion, which was endeavoring to make a 
race free, the senator from Pennsyl- 
vania is the man ; and now he comes 
here and thanks God that a work which 
he has done his best to arrest, and 
which we liave carried,, is accomplished. 
I tell him to-day that we shall carry 
these other measures, whether he 
thanks God or not, whether he op- 
poses them or not." (Laught&r and 
applause in the galleries.) 

In reply to -James Guthrie of 
Kentucky on the Civil-rights Bill, 
]Mr. AVilson said, — 

" The senator tells us that the eman- 
cipated men ought to have their civil 
rio-hts; that the black codes fell with 
slavery : but the senator forgets that at 
least six of the re-organized States in 
their new legislatures have passed laws 
wholly incompatible with the freedom 
of these freedmen ; and so atrocious 
are the provisions of these laws, and 
so persistently are they carried into 
effect by the local authorities, that 
Gen. Thomas iu Mississippi, Gen. 



LIFE OF HEKRY WILSOX. 



10- 



Svrayne in Alabama, Gen. Sickles in 
South Carolina, and Gen. Terry in 
Virginia, have issued positive orders 
forbidding the execution of the black 
laws that have just been passed. So 
unjust, so wicked, so incompatible, are 
these new black laws of the rebel 
States, made in defiance of the ex- 
pressed will of the nation, that Lieut. - 
Gen. Grant has been forced to issue 
that order which sets aside the black 
laws of all these rebellious States 
against the freedmen, and allows no 
law to be enforced against them that 
is not enforced equally against white 
men. 

"This order issued by Gen. Grant 
will be respected and obeyed, and en- 
forced in the rebel States with the mil- 
itary power of the nation. Southern 
legislators and people must learn, if 
they are compelled to learn by the 
bayonets of the army of the United 
States, that the civil rights of the 
freedmen must be and shall be respect- 
ed ; that these freedmen are as free as 
their late masters ; that they live under 
the same laws, shall be tried for their 
violation in the same manner, and, if 
found guilty, punished in the same 
manner and degree. 

" This measure is called for, because 
these reconstructed legislatures, in defi- 
ance of the rights of the freedmen and 
the will of the nation embodied in the 
amendment to the Constitution, have 
enacted laws nearly as iniquitous as 
the old slave codes that darkened the 
legislation of other days. The needs 
of more than four million colored men 
imperatively call for its enactment. 
The Constitution authorizes, and the 
national will demands it. By a series 
of legislative acts, by executive procla- 
mations, by military orders, and by the 



adoption of tbe amendraont to tlie 
Constitution by the people of tlie Unit- 
ed States, the gigantic system of hu- 
man slavery, that darkened the land, 
controlled the policy and swayed the 
destinies of the republic, has forever 
perished. Step by step we have 
marched right on from one victory to 
another, with the music of broken * 
fetters ringing in our ears. None of 
the series of acts in this beneficent 
legislation of Congress, none of the 
proclamations of the executive, none 
of these military orders protecting riglits 
secured by law, will ever be revoked or 
amended by the voice of the American 
people. There is now. 

' No slave beneath that starry flag, — 
The emblem of the free.' 

" By the will of the nation, freedom , 
and free institutions for all, chains and 
fetters for none, are forever incorporat- 
ed in the fundamental law of regener- 
ated and united America. Slave codes 
and auction-blocks, chains and fetters 
and bloodhounds, are things of the 
past; and the chattel stands forth a 
man, with the rights and powers of the 
freemen. For the better security of 
these new-born civil rights, we are now 
about to pass the greatest and grandest 
act in this series of acts that have 
emancipated a race and disinthralled 
a nation. It will pass, it will go upon 
the statute-book of the republic, by the 
voice of the American people ; and 
there it will remain. From the verdict 
of Congress in favor of this great 
measure no appeal will ever be enter- 
tained by the people of the United 
States." 

This was confident and emphat- 
ic language enough, and grated 



1(»S 



LIFE OP HENRY WILSON. 



harshly upon the ears of tlie Bour- 
bons, who were fancying a tremen- 
dous re-aetion ; but the course of 
the convention at Baltimore on 
the 10th of July, 1872, shows hoAv 
true was the statement, and how 
well Senator Wilson foresaw and 
comprehended the nature of the 
controversy and its results. Cow- 
an and Hendricks could little im- 
agine then how laboriously they 
were working to build up an em- 
bankment which they would so 
soon travel to Baltimore to help 
destroy. 

We approach now a point where 
Senator Wilson found it his duty 
to stand in opposition to Mr. Sum- 
ner on a question relating to the 
most judicious method of securing 
the rights of the colored race. The 
jf)int committee of fifteen, of 
Avhich Mr. Fessenden was the head 
on the part of the Senate, and 
Thad. Stevens on the part of the 
Mouse, brought forward a propo- 
sition to amend the Constitution 
by submitting to the States a new 
article : viz. : " Representatives 
and direct taxes shall be appor- 
tioned, among the several States 
which may be included within this 
Union, according to their respec- 
tive numbers, counting the whole 
number of persons in each State, 
excluding Indians not taxed ; pro- 
vided that, whenever the elective 
franchise shall be denied or abridged 
in any State on account of race 
or color, all persons of such race or 
color shall be excluded from the 
basis of representation." The 



purpose of this amendment was to 
secure suffrage to the freedmen ; 
but, in order to amend the Consti- 
tution, the amendment must be 
framed so that three-fourths of the 
States will vote for it. As the peo- 
ple of the States have always had 
the right to fix the franchise to suit 
themselves, and were very jealous 
of any infringement of that right 
by Congress, it w^as known to a 
certainty that a proposition to give 
the elective franchise to the freed- 
men would not command the ne- 
cessary three-fourths of the States ; 
but it was foreseen that every State 
would desire a full representation, 
and, to secure it, would allow the 
colored people to vote in order to 
have them counted in the basis of 
representation. The proposition 
encountered fierce opposition. The 
Democrats all opposed it because it 
would secure suffrage to the col- 
ored people, who, they said, were 
unfit to vote ; and Mr. Sumner op- 
posed it because it would commit 
the government to a principle which 
would exclude them from voting. 
The Democrats opposed it because 
it would help, and Mr. Sumner op- 
posed it because it would not help, 
them. Jack Rogers of New Jersey, 
a leading Democrat, was greatly ex- 
cited on the subject, and spoke at 
great length against the article. 
Mr. Marshall of Illinois, another 
of the magnates of the party, and 
friend of Greeley, declared the 
proposition " wholly untenable, 
monstrous, absurd, damnable in its 
provisions, a greater wrong and 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



109 



outrage on the black race than any 
thing that has ever been advocated 
by otheTs." Mr. Nicholson of 
Delaware said, " If they (the Re- 
publicans) shall finally triumph in 
the mad schemes in which they 
are engaged, they will succeed in 
converting that heretofore sacred 
instrument, reverenced and obeyed 
till the present dominant party 
came into power, from a bond of 
union to a galling yoke of oppres- 
sion, — a thing to be loathed and 
despised." The things thus de- 
nounced were all indorsed at Bal- 
timore the other day by the Dem- 
ocratic Convention. 

Mr. Sumner, however, was the 
one who set it off in the highest 
style of condemnatory art. He 
said, — 

" It reminds me of that leg of mut- 
ton served for dinner on the road from 
Oxford to London, which Dr. Johnson 
with characteristic energy described as 
bad as bad could be, ill-fed, ill-killed, 
ill-kept, and ill-dressed. So this com- 
promise is as bad as bad can be ; and 
even for its avowed purpose it is un- 
certain, loose, cracked, and rickety. It 
is no better than the ' muscipular abor- 
tion ' sent into the world by the ' partu- 
rient mountain.' It makes the Consti- 
tution a well-spring of insupportable 
tliraldom, and once more Hfts the sluices 
of blood destined to run until it comes 
to the horse's bridle. Adopt it, and you 
put millions of fellow-citizens under 
the ban of excommunication ; you will 
hand them over to a new anathema 
maranatha; you will declare that they 
have no political rights which white 
men are bound to respect. Adopt it, 



and you will cover the country with 
dishonor. Adopt it, and you will fix a 
stigma upon the very name of republic. 
As to the imagination there are moun- 
tains of light, so are these mountains 
of darkness ; and this is one of them. 
It is the very Kohinoor of blackness. 
Adopt this proposition, and you will be 
little better than the foul harpies who 
defiled the feast which was spread. The 
Constitution is the feast spread for the 
country ; and you are now hurrying to 
drop into its text a political obscenity, 
and to spread on its page a disgusting 
ordure, 

' Defiling all you find, 
And, parting, leave a loathsome stench behind.' " 

In reply to these assertions Mr. 
Wilson said, — 

" He profoundly regretted to see in- 
dications that the amendment was 
doomed to defeat. My heart, my con- 
science, and my judgment, approve of 
this amendment ; and I support it 
without qualification or reservation. 
I approve of the purpose for which it 
is introduced. I approve it because I 
believe it would sweep the loyal States 
by an immense majority ; that no pub- 
lic man could stand before the people 
of the loyal States in opposition to it, 
or oppose it with any force whatever. 
I approve it because I believe, if it were 
put in the Constitution, every black 
man in America, before five years 
could pass, would be enfranchised, and 
weaponed with the ballot for the pro- 
tection of life, liberty, and property." 

Referring to the speech of Sum- 
ner, he said, — 

"We are told that it is immoral 
and indecent, an offence to reason and 



110 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



couscience. Sir, this measure came 
into Congress with the sanction of the 
Committee on Reconstruction, com- 
posed as it is of men of individual 
lionor and personal character, and as 
true to the colored race as any other 
men here or elsewhere. It comes to 
the Senate hy an overwhelming vote 
of the House of Representatives. It 
is sustained hy ninety-nine out of 
every hundred journals that brought 
the present administration into power ; 
and, were it submitted to the American 
people, it would, I am quite sure, be 
sustained by men in the loyal States, 
who believe that the soldier who fought 
the battles of the republic is the equal 
of the traitor who fought against the 
country. I see no compromise in it, 
no surrender in it, no defilement 
of the Constitution in it, no impli- 
cation that can be drawn from it 
against the rights or interests of the 
colored race : on the contrary, I believe 
the black men from the Potomac to the 
Rio Grande would go for it, and rejoice 
to see it adopted. Being incorporated 
in the Constitution, the practical effect 
would be tliis, and only this : it would 
raise up a party in every one of these 
.States immediately in favor of the en- 
franchisement of the colored race. 
That party might be influenced b}' the 
love of power, by pride, by ambition. 
These men might begin the contest ; 
for they would not like to yield the 
power of their States in Congress : the}' 
might begin the battle, animated by no 
high and lofty motives; but, as soon as 
the di.scussion commijuced, it would 
aildress -itself to the reason, the heart, 
and to the conscience, of the p('0[)le. 
The advocates of negro enfranchisc- 
nient would themselves speedily grow 
lip to believe in the justice, equity, and 



right of giving the ballot to the black 
man. There would be discussion on 
every square mile of the rebel States. 
Apiieals would be made to their pride, 
their ambition, to their justice, to their 
love of fair play, to their equity. All 
the interests and passions, and all the 
loftier motives that can sway, control, 
and influence men, would impel them 
to action. They would co-operate with 
the friends of freedom thoughout the 
country. We would give them our 
influence, our voices, and our aid, iu 
fighting the battle of enfranchisement. 
They would have the support and the 
prayers of the poor black men of the 
South ; and, before five years had 
passed away, there would not be a 
rebel State that did not enfranchise 
the bonQman." 

Referring to the policy of " en- 
lightened Christian States " in re- 
fusing the right of suffrage to the 
negro, be said, — 

" After all the fidelity and heroic 
conduct of these men, prejudice, party- 
spirit, and conservatism, and all that 
is base and mean on earth, combine to 
deny the right of suflVage to the brave 
soldier of the republic. God alone 
can forgive such meanness ; humanity 
cannot. After what has taken jjlace, 
is taking place, I cannot hope that the 
constitutional amendment proposed by 
the senator from INlaine will receive a 
majority of three-fourths of the votes 
of the States : I therefore cannot risk 
the cause of an emanciijated raceujion it. 
In the J) resent condition of the nation, 
we must aim at practical results, not 
to establish political theories, however 
beautiful and alluring the}' uniy be." 

We iniau'iiie that no one can 



LIFE OF HENRY "WILSON. 



Ill 



read this sketch of the debate, and 
the extracts from the speeches, 
without realizing at once the sin- 
cerity and the practical wisdom of 



Mr. Wilson. It was indorsed by 
the people of Massachusetts, and 
met the approval of the common 
sense of the nation. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



What a Working-man has done for Working-men. 



UPON the first entrance of 
Wilson into public life, he 
began to advocate measures tend- 
ing to give employment to work- 
ing men and women, and to open 
up to them all the chances for ad- 
vancement which republican insti- 
tutions afford. To this end, in 
the town-meetings of Natick, he 
joined the party which was in fa- 
vor of providing better houses for 
the common schools, apparatus, 
improved books, furnishing text- 
books to the children of the poor 
gratis, better teachers, and longer 
terms, and that wanted the town 
to buy a farm and a house for 
the unfortunate and poor. As 
has been related, in the legisla- 
ture his first important step was 
the presentation of a report in 
favor of the proper division of 
labor, and the means to enlarge 
the opportunities for work and 
the increase of wages. Farther 
•on he advocated the extension of 
the right of suffrage, and opposed 
the provision which degrades the 
man by depriving him of his riglit 
to vote when he has been stripped 



of his property and his health. 
He was a strong advocate of a 
provision to compel all corporations 
to issue stock in small denomina- 
tions, so that people of moderate 
means could invest their hundred 
or their fifty dollars in any busi- 
ness, and share in the profits of the 
water-power or other manufacto- 
ries. He has been a strong advo- 
cate of homestead acts, of laws 
exempting from seizure the poor 
man's furniture and a portion of 
his wages, of laws abolishing im- 
prisonment for debt, laws to open 
the public lands to actual settlers, 
and laws to shorten the hours of 
labor. 

It will be remembered that Con- 
gress enacted an eight-hour law 
for the benefit of the laborers on 
the public works ; but some of the 
officers in charge of forts, arsenals, 
and buildings, immediately reduced 
the pay of the employees in the 
same proportion as the reduction 
of the hours. This aroused the 
sensibilities of Senator Wilson ; 
and on the 29th of April, 1869, he 
wrote a sharp letter to Hon. John 



112 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON". 



A. Rawlins, secretary of war, in 
wliich he stated the case Avith great 
abiUty, and showed how that con- 
struction defeated the intent of 
the statute. We give the conclu- 
sion of this letter : — 

" During the debate, I took occa- 
siou to say, iu substance, that I should 
Vote against Mr. Sberman's amend- 
ment, for the reason that I wished to 
give the eight-hour movement a fair 
trial ; that I thought the government 
employing a few hundred mechanics 
and laborers could afford to test the 
eight-hour experiment ; that I was not 
convinced that toiling men could per- 
form as much work in eight hours as 
ten hours, or that they would receive 
as much pay for eight hours as for ten 
hours ; but that it might be for tlie ma- 
terial, intellectual, and moral interests 
of the masses of the people, whose lot 
it was to toil for their subsistence, to 
reiluce the hours of labor ; and, if that 
reduction would be conducive to the 
interests of laboring-men and laboring- 
women, it would be a source of gratih- 
cation to every benevolent heart and 
every generous mind. I maintained 
that capital needed no champion in 
this country and in this age ; that we 
were made for something better and 
something higher in this country tlian 
to pile up a tliousand millions annu- 
ally ; that what we wanted to grow in 
this Christian land was a healthy race 
of men and women with cultivated 
heads and hearts and consciences ; 
that whatever tended to dignify labor 
or lighten its burdens, to increase its re- 
wards or.cnlarge its knowledge, should 
receive their sympathy, and command 
their support ; that, animated by these 
bcutiments, I should vote against Mr. 



Sherman's amendment, and for the bill 
as it came from the representatives of 
the people." (Sherman's amendment 
was, that the rate of wages should be 
the current rate at the time and place 
when and where the work was to be 
done.) 

"Xo senator suggested that the 
passage of the bill reducing the liours 
of labor one-fifth reduced the wages 
of labor one-fifth : on the contrary, 
all admitted that it reduced the hours 
of labor without reducing the rates of 
wages. Mr. Sherman's amendment 
was intended to reduce the rate 
of wages in proportion to the reduction 
of time. Sixteen senators voted for it 
to accomplish that avowed pui-pose : 
twenty-one senators voted against it to 
defeat the accomplishment of that pur- 
pose. TliB action of the officers of 
the government is in direct opposition 
to the declarations of senators, and 
in opposition to the vote of the Senate. 
The recent action of the House of 
Representatives is an emphatic dec- 
laration against the construction put 
upon tho law. I think this action 
of the House should be an admonition 
to those officers to revise their opinions, 
and revoke their orders. 

" Kespectfullj^ yours, 

"Hexry Wilsox." 

In a speech delivered at Faneuil 
Hall Oct. 14, 1868, he said, — 

" To provide for the expenses of 
that Democratic rebellion, the Eepub- 
lican party were compelled to take the 
responsibility of arranging a system * 
of taxation; and they so adjusted that 
taxation as to make the burden bear 
as lightly as possihle on the productive 
interests of the country aud u[)on the 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



113 



Morking-men of the country. More 
than one-half of the duties levied on 
imports are assessed on wines, bran- 
dies, silks, velvets, laces, and other 
articles of luxury, chiefly consumed b3'^ 
the more wealthy portion of our coun- 
trymen. The duties imposed on the 
necessaries of life — upon tea, coffee, 
sugar, and other articles entering into 
the consumption of the masses of the 
people — are made as low as possible ; 
and discrimination is made in favor of 
our mechanical and manufacturing in- 
dustry. 

" The Republican party spurns this 
Democratic doctrine of taxing every 
species of property according to its 
value. It believes in discriminating 
in favor of poor, toiling men, and of 
putting the burden of taxation on ac- 
cumulated capital and large incomes. 
In time of war, when the nation need- 
ed money so much, the Republicans 
exempted nineteen out of every twenty 
dollars of the incomes of the people. 
This was done to relieve the working- 
men, whose small incomes were re- 
quired for the support of their fami- 
lies and the education of their chil- 
dren. We exempted all incomes un- 
der six hundred dollars ; and this 
exemption included the incomes of 
nearly all the laboring-men, mechanics, 
and small farmers, of the country. We 
taxed all incomes from six hundred 
dollars to five thousand dollars five per 
cent, and all incomes over five thou- 
sand dollars ten percent. That was 
not equal taxation; but it was just 
taxation ; for it was based on the 
sound policy of putting the burden 
upon capital, and taking the burden 
from labor. Now we have taken the 
tax from all incomes less than a thou- 
sand dollars, and we tax all incomes 



above a thousand dollars five per cent, 
tlius relieving the working-men and 
nearl}^ all the mechanics and farmers 
from taxation on incomes. We Re- 
publicans intend to stand or fall by 
this policy, which discriminates in fa- 
vor of the poor, the mechanics, the 
small farmers, and the working-men 
of the country. We serve notice on 
the Democratic party, on all the sup- 
porters of this anti-democratic ductviue 
of the equal taxation of every species 
of pi'operty according to its value, that 
we Republicans will never agree to 
the taxation of the little earnings of 
working-men at the same rate we tax 
the incomes of the Stewarts and the 
Astors, the great corporations and 
capitalists of the country. We give 
the Democracy notice that we will 
never tax sugar, coffee, and tea at the 
same rates we tax silks and wines and 
brandies; that we will never tax a 
gallon of milk as high as we tax a gal- 
lon of whiskey. We give the Democ- 
racy notice that we will not tax the 
tools of the mechanic, the horse of the 
drayman, the little homes and farms 
of the poor, and the incomes of work- 
ing-men needed for the support of them- 
selves and the support of their house- 
holds. We Republicans will never 
consent to the putting of the burdens 
of the government equally on the 
small accumulations of the poor and 
the great capitals and large interests 
of the country. That is the position 
of the Republican party ; and it is a 
position in favor' of the productive 
interests of the nation and the inter- 
ests of the working-men: and we Re- 
publicans mean to stand by it, or fall 
by it ; live by it, or die by it. Every 
laboring-man in America, every me- 
chanic, every farmer, and every busi- 



114 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



iiess-man, who desires to tlevelop the 
mighty resources of tliis country, and 
carry it upward and onward in a 
career of jtower and prosperity, shoukl 
spit upon and trample upon this dem- 
ocratic doctrine of equal taxation, which 
is against labor, and in favor of capital ; 
against the loyal, and in favor of the 
disloyal, portions of the laud." 

During the last session of this 
Congress, 1872, he made a propo- 
sition to add two to the number 
of commissioners to investigate the 
circumstances of working-people, 
to obtain statistics and information 
on the general subject of labor, and 
to suggest methods for the welfare 
and piomotion of the masses ; and 
he interested himself actively in 
support of the measure. 

The circumstances of Wilson's 
early life ; the poverty of his father ; 
the struggles of his mother to find 
bread for him and his brood of 
brothers, and to keep them clothed 
in decent garments ; his hard la- 
bors on the farm ; his weary and 
vain search for employment at only 
moderate wages ; his association 
with other young men striving 
with himself to become respecta- 
ble and useful in the world under 
great disadvantages and slight 
hopes of success ; his study of sla- 
very, and knowledge of the person- 
al deprivations and hardships of the 
colored race, with which he became 
cognizant in the flush of youth; 
ami his companionship willi nic- 
ch.uiics and operatives in mills and 
^hops, — iiave all tended to kec}) his 
thuughls and sympathies with the 



down-trodden, the poor, and the 
common people. The prodigious 
influence of slavery in degrading 
labor in this country early im- 
pressed his mind ; and to get rid of 
that curse and abomination ap- 
peared to him to be the first and 
most immediately important step. 
That has been accomplished ; and 
the efi^ect of emancipation upon the 
white race is now becoming per- 
ceptible: but the long and ardu- 
ous labors and anxieties and dan- 
gers of Senator "Wilson in assisting 
to that consummation can never 
be properly recounted and under- 
stood. He has made more than 
thirteen hundred public speeches, 
a large majority of which were 
directly in the interests of the 
people who are doing the world's 
weary drudgery and necessary 
work. You can scarcely take one 
of his speeches, and open it any- 
where, that your eye will not see 
something for the common mass, — 
encouragement, sympathy, hope, 
or the defence of their rights, and 
their claims to manhood and pre- 
rogatives. The subject is ever 
u[)permost in his mind, and it 
comes out on every occasion. He 
has travelled from one end of the 
country to the other at all seasons, 
and many times worked all night 
for thousands of nights, giving his 
time, his thoughts, and his earn- 
ings to the cause of the poor, ab- 
solutely and without stint. In- 
stead of studying law, and putting 
his splendid abilities into the Su- 
preme Court at the rate of ten 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



115 



thousand dollars the single case, as 
some have done, to place money in 
his own pocket, he has defended 
the rights of the country and of 
humanity without pay in the higher 
court of public opinion and popular 
appeal, and devoted, besides, nearly 
every dollar of his salary as a legisla- 
tor, and his pay as an author, which 
has been handsome, to the relief of 
the soldier and the unfortunate. 

Always and everywhere has he 
advocated and demanded equality, 
and a fair chance and a free field 
for every son and daughter of the 
race. And perhaps, after all his 
efforts and labors and trials and 



successes in his various schemes 
for the good of manldnd, his bril- 
liant example to the youth of 
America and the world, showing 
and proving what a poor, obscure, 
uneducated boy may accomplish 
when he resolutely takes hold of 
life in earnest, and perseveringly 
adheres to a purpose, is the most 
valuable legacy he will leave to his 
countrymen. He has assiduously 
labored to secure for all a chance, 
and the best chance, to be some- 
thing ; . he has urged them to try 
the experiment ; and he has done 
for himself what he would have 
them do for themselves. 



CHAPTER XVH. 



His "Work in Congress. 



TO convey an idea of the indus- 
try, and attention to business, 
of Senator Wilson, we make a tran- 
script of his part in the proceedings 
of two or three sessions. 

Thirty-ninth Congress. 

Eeports by Senator Wilson, Nos. 142, 
789, 975, 1085, 1134, 1184, 1224, 
1238, 1293, 1359, 1498, 1667, 1815, 
1867, 1894, 1976, 1992, 1993, 2000. 
Eesolutions 75, 143, 183,-584, 694, 
764, 999. 

Remarks on the District Suffrage Bill. 

Remarks on the bill for the admission 
of Nebraska. 

Remarks on the bill to protect the na- 
tional cemeteries. 



Remarks on the Tariff Bill. 
Remarks on the bill to amend the act 

incorporating Orphans' Home. 
Remarks on Bankrvipt Bill. 
Remarks on claims in insuiTectionary 

States. 
Remarks on the Civil Employes Com- 
pensation Bill. 
Remarks on the bill fixing rights of 

volunteers. 
Remarks on bill for relief of certain 

drafted men. 
Remarks on bill for relief of vagrant 

children in the District. 
Remarks on Military Government Bill. 
Remarks on Military Academy Bill. 
Remarks on Consular and Diplomatic 

Appropriation Bill. 
Remarks on bill to abolish peonage. 



116 



LIFE OF HENEY WILSON". 



Eeuuxrks on Louisiana Eeconstruction 
Bill. 

Eoniarks on bill to extend rations to 
certain officers. 

Eeniarks on bill to facilitate settlement 
of paymasters' accounts. 

Eemai'ks on bill to establish Depart- 
ment of Education. 

Kemarks on bill to provide compound 
interest notes. 

Kemarks on bill relative to courts- 
martial. 

Eemarks on bill relative to soldiers' 
bounties. 

Eemarks on bill relative to increase of 
pa}' of armj'-officers. 

Remarks on Tax Bill. 

Remarks on bill for admitting Colorado. 

Remarks on Fortification Bill. 

Remarks on Naval Aj^propriation Bill. 

Remarks on Tariff Bill. 

Remarks on bill relating to brevets. 

Fortieth Congress. 

Bill to fix the number of judges of 
Supreme Court. 

Bill to amend franchise act District 
of Columbia. 

Bill relating to judges of SuiDreme 
Court. 

Bill to amend National Currency Act. 

Bill to amend Tenure-of-office Act. 

Bill to reduce the army. 

Bill to re-organize the grades of army- 
officers. 

Bill to furnish supplies for Indian Bu- 
reau. 

Bill to consolidate infantry regiuients. 

Bill relating to freedmeu's hospitals. 

Bill to relieve the .soldiers who sus- 
taiiii-il Idsscs by disasters to the 
Kti;aiiiers '" \\'iiiii(.'ld Scott'' and "San 
Francisco.'' 

Bill tu reduce the militia in the South. 



Bill to establish a line of steamers to 
Europe. 

Bill to equalize distribution of bank- 
ing capital. 

Joint Resolution to drop from the rolls 
army-officers absent without leave. 

Joint Resolution to re-appoint Louis 
Agassiz regent Smithsonian Insti- 
tution. 

Joint Resolution donating cannon for 
a monument to Lincoln. 

Joint Resolution for an amendment of 
the Constitution. 

Joint Resolution for information relat- 
ing to the fisheries secured by the 
Alaska purchase. 

Joint Resolution in reference to estab- 
lishing a branch of Soldiers' Home 
on the Pacific coast. 

Joint Resolution in reference to man- 
agement of Freednien's Bureau. 

Joint Resolution for purchase of a col- 
lection of war-views. 

Joint Resolution calling for a list of 
pardons for ofiences against revenue- 
laws and for counterfeiting. 

Remarks on president's message. 

Remarks on bill to restore Indian Bu- 
reau to War Department. 

Remarks on resolution for payment of 
national debt. 

Remarks on bill concerning militia. 

Remarks on Pacific Railroad. 

Remarks on Copper Bill. 

Remarks on bill to provide for reduc- 
tion of forces. 

Remarks on suftrage amendment. 

Remarks on governments of Virginia 
and Texas. 

Remarks on Consular and Diplomatic 
P. ill. 

Remarks on Joint Resolution for print- 
ing medical history of the Rebellion. 

Remarks on bill for removing disabili- 
ties. 



LIFE OF HENRY "WILSON. 



117 



Remarks on Currency Bill. 

Remarks on Army Bill. 

Remarks on bill to fix status of judge- 
advocates. 

Remarks on bill relating to general of 
the army. 

Remarks on bill relating to additional 
bounties. 

Remarks on bill relating to military 
instructors. 

Remarks on joint resolution to com- 
plete Pacific Railway. 

Remarks on bill to strengthen public 
credit. 

Remarks on Legislative Appropriation 
Bill. 

Remarks on Post-office Appropriation 
Bill. 

Remarks on Civil Appropriation Bill. 

Remarks on bill relating to pay of 
committee clerks. 

The above are in addition to all 
merely private bills, joint resolu- 
tions, and remarks thereon, and 
incidental remarks. 

Forty-first Congress. 

Bill to establish lines of steamships. 

Bill for more equal distribution of cur- 
rency. 

Bill for relief of Orlando Brown. 

Bill relating to freedmen's hospitals. 

Bill to relinquish the interest of the 
United States in certain lands on 
the Pacific to San Francisco. 

Bill to appoint a commission to ex- 
amine claims of loyal persons for 
supplies, &c. 

Bill to grant two million acres of land 
for education in the District of Co- 
lumbia. 

Bill to remove disabilities from persons 
engaged in rebellion. 



Bill relating to Freedmen's Bureau. 
Bill relating to pensions. 
Bill relating to freedmen's hospitals. 
Bill to grant an increase of pension to 
widows of officers. 

Bill to remove disabilities of Alex- 
• ander Rives. 

Bill for relief of scouts and guides in 
Alabama. 

Joint Resolution for sale of arsenal at 
Bergen Heights. 

Joint Resolution for sale of Chatta- 
nooga Rolling- Mill. 

Joint Resolution donating Lincoln 
Hospital to Columbia Hospital for 
women. 

Joint Resolution relating to retirement 
of Gen. Heintzelman. 

Joint Resolution authorizing the sec- 
retary of war to take charge of 
cemeteries at Antietam and Gettys- 
burg. 

Joint Resolution respecting pay of 
enlisted men. 

Joint Resolution for protection of sol- 
diers and their heirs. 

Joint Resolution to drop from the rolls 
certain officers absent without leave. 

Joint Resolution donating certain con- 
demned material to the Industrial 
Home School. 

Joint Resolution authorizing the presi- 
dent to make a survey for a ship 
railway or canal across the Isthmus 
of Darien. 

Joint Resolution calling for copy of 
contracts for ordnance with Norman 
Wiard. 

Joint Resolution to define the meaning 
if the eight-hour law. 

Remarks on Currency Bill. 

Remarks on Pacific Railway, and gov- 
ernment interest therein. 

Remarks on Resolution for protection 
of soldiers and their heirs. 



lis 



LIFE OF HENEY WILSOX. 



Eoniarks on rosolutiou relating to bre- 
vet appointments. 

Iteniarks on bill for removing dis- 
abilities. 



Eemarks on Deficiency Bill. 
Eemarks on El Paso I'acific Eailroad. 
Remarks on Resolution concerning pay 
of Southern senators. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



Conclusion. 



HENRY WILSON has now 
been presented to the read- 
er in his character as a public man 
and legislator ; and the limits as- 
signed to this work prevent any 
extended description of his man}" 
and important labors in various 
causes and directions. As an effec- 
tive campaigner, he has had more 
experience than any man now 
living ; and his speeches furnish the 
statistics and the facts which carry 
conviction to the minds of the 
sober, reflecting, honest classes of 
the country, whose judgment is 
influential, and whose opinions 
prevail in the small villages and 
school-districts of the land. In 
1857, in the spring, he went to 
Kansas, and found the fi-ee-State 
men desponding, inactive, and pro- 
posing to stand still, and let the 
enemy have it all their own way. 
Wilson saw this would not an- 
swer ; that there must be action : 
and the people of the Territory, the 
free-State men, must organize, and 
make fight. After many days' 
labor, he succeeded in converting 
the leading men to liis views : and 
lie llien came buck to Massa- 



chusetts, and, by persevering effort, 
succeeded in raising funds to carry 
on the campaign in Kansas ; and by 
this means the Territory was saved 
to freedom. 

As an editor and author, Wilson 
has achieved an honorable success. 
In 1848 he purchased " The Boston 
Republican " to advocate in its 
columns the measures and princi- 
ples of the Free-soil party ; but his 
engagements on the stump, and in 
his business as a manufacturer, pre- 
vented him from giving to it close 
personal attention. The mercan- 
tile instincts of Boston were then 
not in harmony with the Free-soil 
movement ; and hence patronage 
in the way of advertising was not 
to be had to any amount. Finan- 
cially the investment was a failure, 
and he lost heavily. 

He has written two volumes on 
the Antislavery Measures in Con- 
gress, and one on the Reconstruc- 
tion Measures, which are valuable 
and interesting. His principal 
work, " The History of the Rise 
and Fall of the Slave-Power in 
America," is a work of much larger 
scope and pretensions ; anel the hrst 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 



119 



volume, recently published, has re- 
ceived the highest encomiums of 
the leading critics in the coun- 
try. " The Albany Journal," " Bos- 
ton Traveller," " Boston Globe," 
" New- York Tribune," and most 
of the principal newspapers in the 
large cities, have spoken of it as 
eminently fair, clear, truthful, in- 
teresting, well conceived, well ex- 
ecuted, and a valuable contribution 
to our literature. It has drawn 
special letters of approval from 
W. H. Seward, William Lloyd 
Garrison, and other distinguished 
men. 

In boyhood he saw the lament- 
able effects of the use of alcoholic 
liquors as a beverage in causing 
crime, and in keeping the common 
people in their condition of poverty 
and degradation; and he early re- 
solved to abandon their use, and 
do what he could to persuade 
others to. He initiated the Con- 
gressional Temperance Society, and 
by its agency and influence suc- 
ceeded, for a time at least, in saving 
more than one brilliant man of 
genius from degradation, and their 
constituents from the dishonor 
which is brought upon a people 
through the frailty of represen- 
tatives addicted to the vice of 
intemperance. A late disgraceful 
demonstration at a city in Connec- 
ticut provokes comparisons from 
■which we refrain, as the people of 
the country — those who imbibe as 
well as those who do not — are able 
to judge of the propriety and the 
importance of having in high office 



and for rulers those only who 
can command themselves. The 
following, which we clip from a 
newspaper, has been the rounds ; 
but it is worthy of a continued 
circulation, and we, forward it on 
its mission : — 

Moral Bravery. 

Twenty years ago a young man went 
to Washington with a petition to Con- 
gress from the people of old Massachu- 
setts. While in that city, he was in- 
vited to dine with the celebrated John 
Quincy Adams. 

Many great men sat at the table. 
The young man had been poor, and 
was then only a mechanic in moderate 
circumstances. During dinner, Mr. 
Adams said to him, — 

" Will you take a glass of wine with 
me, sir ? " 

The young man was a temperate 
man ; but the eyes of many greater 
than himself were upon him. They 
were all wine-drinkers, and it was no 
small matter to decline such a request 
from his venerable host. No wonder 
the young man was embarrassed ; that 
he blushed and hesitated. It was a 
trying moment for him ; but he was 
a true man. He had real manhood, 
and he stammered, — 

" Sii', I never take wine." 

Nobly said, young man ! Massachu- 
setts heard that answer, and under- 
stood it. She saw in Henry Wilson 
a man that could be trusted ; and she 
made him one of her senators. To-daj^, 
as for several years past, he is known 
as Senator Wilson. God bless him ! 
May our readers follow his example, 
and, however and by whomsoever 
tempted, stick to their principles ! 



120 



LIFE OF HENRY WILSOX. 



In 1808 Mr. Wilson united with 
the Congregational Church, and 
since then has given much of his 
time, talents, and money in for- 
warding the enterprises of the de- 
nomination and of the Church 
universal. 

When Wilson was fairly estab- 
lished in Natick, he brought his 
father and mother there, that he 
might aid them and care for them 
in their declining years ; and, not- 
withstanding his incessant labors 
and engagements, they were never 
overlooked or neglected. His 
wife's mother has for years been a 
member of his family, and speaks 
of his devotion as in no wise short 
of a son's in its warmth and con- 
stancy. While he was in Europe 
in 1871, visiting the places of in- 
terest, studying the phases of soci- 
ety, meeting and conversing with 
the statesmen and with men of 
science and letters, he let no 
week pass without writing to his 
mother-in-law, now more than 
eighty years of age, and with no 
property to lead him to expect 
any return through the kindly 



remembrance of a testamentary 
devise. 

Among his neighbors there is 
never a whisper or hint of lack on 
his .part of personal integrity, 
neighborly kindness, or faithfulness 
to the great causes whose cham- 
pionship he has assumed. 

That he is ambitious none will 
deny : but tlie cause of freedom, 
the welfare of mankind, the eleva- 
tion of the masses, have never 
been in the market to be disposed 
of for the gratification of his per- 
sonal aspirations ; and the making 
of money out of his positions has 
never been even alleged against 
him. Had he not been ambitious, 
he would not have succeeded. 

We do not present Henry Wil- 
son as a perfect man, for he is in- 
tensely human ; but as an organiz- 
er, a peace-maker, a wise counsellor, 
an efficient legislator, a far-seeing 
statesman, a dutiful son, and a 
specimen product of American 
institutions, we trust the reader 
will find him in the front rank, and 
worthy to wear the honors for 
which he has been designated. 



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RISE AND FALL 

OF 

THE SLAVE POWER 

IN THE 

UNITED STATEf:. 

By HENRV AAriT c^-^ 

In Three Volumes 

[Vol. II. will be published earb "' ic73. »"<:' Vol. III. early in i: - i 



SENATOR WILSON'S thorough study of the origin and early growth of the ? 
this country, and his intimate iiersonal knowledge of the latter stages of i"- 
culniinated and swiftly fell, admirably qualify him to write its history. He has sc ' 
without partisan feeling, as it will be regarded by future generations. 

The first volume r'elates the beginning of Slavery, with the arrival of the shi] 
at Jamestown, its expansion and development, its aggressive designs and operation: 
of the government, dnwn to the annexation of Texas in 1845. The second volum< 
history of the struggle between Slavery and Freedom in Congress, m the States, in the Territo 
in the press, in the jjulpit, from 1845 t" ^'^^ beginning of the Civil War in 1861. The third vol 
will recount the overthrow of Slavery by the war, the reconstruction measures, and the en 
chisement of the colored race. 

The work, when complete in three volumes, will be a standard history of Slavery, and o 
gigantic conflict in which it involved the nation and wrought its own destruction. 



NOTICES OF THE PRESS. 

•' The present volume, which brings the history down to the admission of Texas as a Slave 
Mate in 1845, forms an admirable oper-ng of the work, and furnishes an ample pledge of the ex- 
cellence of its future character. One of the nv>st striking features in the execution ot^ the volume is 
its conscientious thoroughness of detail. The author has carried his well-known habits ot sedulous 
industry into the accomplishment of his task. He has evidently shrunk from 110 labor in cjucst of 
materials for his narrative, or in their orderly and lucid arrangement and exhibition. No minute- 
ness of detail in the account of legislative i)roceedings. or the action of public bodies, has proved 
wearisome to his hands, or impairtid the freshness of his spirit. Every significant topic comes in 
for its due share of notice, and is presented with an exactness of .statement and a clearness of illus- 
tration which leave nothing to be desired for the perfect "ctimpfwliension of the subject." — ,V'tw- 
)''>7- Tribune. 



• It is an invaluable manual of facts concerning the Slave Tower, evincing much research on 
the part of the author in cases beyond his persimal knowledge, and throughout e.xhibiting a 
thorough mastery of the subject, and the amplest ability in treating of the details."' — Boston 
7 r,tn<cript. 

• . • /-or iuU by all BooluclUrs. Sent, postpaid, on receipt oj price, hy the Publishers, 

JAIVIES R. OSGOOD & CO., Boston. , 



